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Expressions

Overview

Expressions are almost identical to those found in C or Java. The same operator precedence rules apply:

Expression(s)	Operator(s)
Accessors	. ?. () []
Unary	- ! ~ ++ -- (cast)
Multiplicative	* / %
Additive	+ -
Bitwise Shift	>> <<
Elvis	?:
Relational	< <= > >=
Equality	== !=
Bitwise AND	&
Bitwise XOR	^
Bitwise OR	|
Logical AND	&&
Logical OR	||
Ternary	? :
Assignment	= += -= *= /= |= ^= &= >>= <<=

Arithmetic Operators

The following arithmetic operators may be used with numeric primitives:

Name	Operator
Multiplication	x * y
Division	x / y
Modulus (remainder)	x % y
Addition	x + y
Subtraction	x - y
Negation	-x
Prefix Increment	++x
Prefix Decrement	--x
Postfix Increment	x++
Postfix Decrement	x--

The Modulus operator is only available for integer types, it may not be used with floats or doubles.

The prefix/postfix operators work just like C and Java. If using the prefix operator the result of the expression is the new value. If using the postfix operator the result is the old value:

  int x = 4    // x == 4
  int y = ++x  // x == 5, y == 5
  int z = x++  // x == 6, z == 5

Bitwise Operators

The following bitwise operators may be used with integer primitives (byte, short, int, long):

Name	Operator
Or	x | y
Xor	x ^ y
And	x & y
Left Shift	x << y
Right Shift	x >> y
Not	~x

Logical Operators

The following logical operators may be used with booleans:

Name	Operator
Or	x || y
And	x && y
Not	!x

Both the Or and And operators are short circuiting. If the first term of Or evaluates to true, then the second term is not evaluated. If the first term of And evaluates to false, then the second term is not evaluated.

Comparison

The following operators are used for comparison:

Name	Operator
Equal	x == y
Not Equal	x != y
Greater Than	x > y
Greater Than or Equal	x >= y
Less Than	x < y
Less Than or Equal	x <= y

Non-numeric types may only use the equality (== and !=) operators. Reference types compare identity (pointer address).

Assignment

The = operator is used to assign the right hand side expression to the left hand side. The left hand side must be assignable. Assignable expressions are local variables, fields, and array indices.

The compound assignment operators += -= *= /= |= ^= &= >>= <<= can be used to combine an arithmetic or bitwise operator with assignment:

  int x = 5   // x == 5
  x += 3      // x == 8

Assigning to Properties

If the left hand side of an assignment expression is a component property then you must use the := assignment operator instead of =. This highlights the fact that assigning a new value to a property results in more than just the storage of the new value; it also has potential side effects that may not always be visible to the user.

Note that there are no compound property assignment operators; increment, decrement, etc must be spelled out explicitly in the expression.

    // Property px
    property int px

    // Non-property field ix
    int ix

    void myfunc()
    {
      // Use := when lhs is a property
      px := 3

      // Use = when lhs is a non-property
      ix = px

      // No compound assignment operators
      px := px + 1
    }

Casting

Sedona uses a syntax just like C or Java to perform a cast. Casts are required when the compiler cannot perform a static type check. For example, if you need to assign an Obj to a Component, then you must use a cast: c = (Component)obj. This type of cast is for compile time checking only, at runtime it is basically a no-op like C.

Casts are also used with numeric types to perform a type conversion. For example to convert an int into a float: f = (float)i. Note that unlike C and Java, upcasts such as from an int to a long are not implicit - you must be explicitly use a cast.

Safe Navigation

Sedona supports Groovy's safe navigation operator: x?.slot. You can use the safe nav operator to access fields or call methods. If the target expression of a slot access is null, then the whole expression short circuits to evaluate to null. If the field or method returns a primitive then it short circuits to false/zero. Using the safe nav operator is a convenient and more efficient way than manually checking for null:

      // hard way
      DeviceNetwork net = null
      if (point != null)
      {
        Device dev = point.getDevice()
        if (dev != null) net = dev.getNetwork()
      }

      // easy way
      DeviceNetwork net = point?.getDevice()?.getNetwork()

Elvis

Sedona supports Groovy's elvis operator: lhs ?: rhs. If lhs evaluates to null, then the whole expression evaluates to rhs. If lhs is non-null, then the rhs is short circuited and the whole expression evaluates to lhs. The elvis operator is a convenient and more efficient way to write code where you might use the ternary operator:

      // hard way
      name != null ? name : "unknown"

      // easy way
      name ?: "unknown"

Ternary

Sedona supports the C/Java ternary operator: c ? t : f. The boolean expression c is evaluated. If true then the ternary expression evaluates to t, otherwise it evaluates to f:

      bool x = true
      Str msg = x ? "On" : "Off"   // msg == "On"
      x = false
      msg = x ? "On" : "Off"       // msg == "Off"

String Interpolation

Sedona supports string interpolation, which allows for concise string formatting. String interpolation can be used with any method that has one Str parameter and returns an OutStream. You may use the "+" operator to concatenate multiple expressions to a string literal:

  // using the + operator
  int x = 77
  Sys.out.print("x=" + x)

  // is equivalent to this statement
  Sys.out.print("x=").printInt(x)

The example above illustrates why interpolation is only used with methods that take a Str and return an OutStream. The compiler doesn't actually create a new string, rather it chains multiple print calls.

Use of the "+" operator is allowed, but the preferred mechanism for string formatting is to embed the expressions directly into the string literal itself using the '$' character. You can embed any arbitrary expression into a string literal using the syntax "${expr}". If the expression is a simple variable name or a variable name followed by a dot field access, then you can omit the curly braces. Use the '\$' escape sequence to print the dollar sign itself. Some examples:

      // example from above
      Sys.out.print("x=${x}")

      // same but omitting the braces
      Sys.out.print("x=$x")

      // embedded expressions
      Sys.out.print("x=0x${Sys.hexStr(x)}")

The following types are supported with string interpolation:

Type	Print Method
Str	OutStream.print
bool	OutStream.printBool
int	OutStream.printInt
long	OutStream.printLong
float	OutStream.printFloat
double	OutStream.printDouble

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Last update: April 28, 2020