This page lists every syntactic operator in Dana.

Arithmetic

Syntax	Effect
i++	increment value of i, return incremented value
i--	decrement value of i, return decremented value
a + b	add value of a to b, return result
a - b	substract value of b from a, return result
a * b	multiply value of a by b, return result
a / b	divide value of a by b, return result
a % b	divide value of a by b, return remainder
a += b	add value of b to a, assigning result to a
a -= b	substract value of b from a, assigning result to a
a *= b	multiply value of a by value of b, assigning result to a
a /= b	divide value of a by b, assigning result to a
a %= b	divide value of a by b, assigning remainder to a

Logic

Syntax	Effect
~ a	bitwise logical not on value of a, return the result
a & b	bitwise logical and on values of a and b, return the result
a | b	bitwise logical or on values of a and b, return the result
a ^ b	bitwise logical xor on values of a and b, return the result
a && b	return true if a and b are true, not executing b if a is false
a || b	return true if a or b are true, not executing b if a is true
!a	boolean not on value of a, return the result
a << b	left-shift value of a by number of bits given by b, return result
a >> b	right-shift value of a by number of bits given by b, return result

Assignment

Syntax	Effect
a = b	assign value of b to a
a =[] b	copy array cells of b into array cells of a

Comparison

Syntax	Effect
a == b	return true if the value of a is equal to the value of b
a != b	return true if the value of a is not equal to the value of b
a === b	return true if a refers to the same memory as b
a !== b	return true if a does not refer to the same memory as b
a > b	return true if value of a is greater than the value of b
a >= b	return true if value of a is greater than or equal to the value of b
a < b	return true if value of a is less than the value of b
a <= b	return true if value of a is less than or equal to the value of b

Control flow

Syntax	Effect
if (<boolean>) { }	conditionally execute a block of code, if the boolean parameter is true
if (<boolean>) { } else { }	conditionally execute a block of code, if the boolean parameter is true, otherwise execute the 'else' block of code
if (<boolean>) { } else if (<boolean>) { }	conditionally execute a block of code, if the boolean parameter is true, otherwise execute the 'else if' block of code, if the second boolean is true
while (<boolean>) { }	repeatedly execute a block of code, for as long as the boolean parameter is true
for (<initialiser> ; <boolean> ; <increment>) { }	execute the <initialiser> statement once, then repeatedly execute a block of code, for as long as the boolean parameter is true, executing the <increment> statement at the end of each repeat
break	jump out of the most closely nested loop

Arrays

Syntax	Effect
x[index]	access an array cell by index, where the first array cell is at index zero
x.arrayLength	return the number of cells in the array x

Construction

Syntax	Effect
new DataType()	construct a new data instance of type DataType
new DataType(firstField, secondField)	construct a new data instance of type DataType, assigning its first two fields to the given values
new DataType(firstField, otherField = x)	construct a new data instance of type DataType, assigning its first field to the given value, and a named field to a given value
new ArrayType[size]	construct a new array instance of type ArrayType, with the number of cells given by size
new ArrayType	construct a new array instance of type ArrayType, with the cells copied from the content parameter(s)
new ObjectType()	construct a new object instance of interface type ObjectType
new ObjectType(paramValue1, paramValue2)	construct a new object instance of interface type ObjectType, passing in values to the constructor's parameters
new ObjectType(paramValue1, myParam = x)	construct a new object instance of interface type ObjectType, passing in a value to a constructor's mandatory parameter, and a value to an optional named parameter
new Data() from X	construct a new data instance of the type indicated in the lang.Type instance X
new ObjectType() from X	construct a new object instance of interface type ObjectType, from the component referred to the by the lang.IDC instance X

Concurrency

Syntax	Effect
this.thread	access the lang.Thread instance of the current thread
mutex(x) { }	enforce sequential access to a block of code, where x can be any data instance
asynch::function()	launch a local function as a new thread, returning a lang.Thread instance

Event model

Syntax	Effect
sinkevent Handler(x)	route events emitted by object x to the event handler Handler
stopevent Handler(x)	stop receiving events from object x to the event handler Handler
emitevent eventType(x)	emit an event of the given event type, with the optional data instance parameter x

Memory management

Syntax	Effect
clone x	make a copy of the data or array instance x
reclone x	make a copy of the data or array instance x, recursively copying any referenced array or data instances
delink x	set all references to null, recursively, in the data or array instance x

Status checks

Syntax	Effect
isset x	check if an optional function parameter x was set to anything at invocation time
implements x	check if the current component is the implementer of the object x

Reflection

Syntax	Effect
Type.[fieldName]	return the integer index of the given field name into the given type's fields
a:.b	return the value of the field index b of data instance a
a:.b()	invoke the function index b on the object instance a
typeof(t)	return the lang.Type instance reflecting the type of t

System calls

Syntax	Effect
dana.sub(a, start, end)	gain a reference to sub-array of array a, starting from index start and ending at index end (inclusive)
dana.serial(x)	gain a reference to the memory region of data or array instance x, as a byte array
dana.getIDC()	get the IDC reference of the Dana runtime