Expressions

Expressions work like in C, with one exception: it is possible to take the address of a temporary. This uses the operator && rather than &.

Consequently, this is valid:

fn void test(int* x) { ... }

test(&&1);

// In C:
// int x = 1;
// test(&x);

Well-defined evaluation order

Expressions have a well-defined evaluation order:

  1. Binary expressions are evaluated from left to right.
  2. Assignment occurs right to left, so a = a++ would result in a being unchanged.
  3. Call arguments are evaluated in parameter order.
  4. For named parameters, evaluation is in parameter order, not argument order. So the evaluation order of foo(.a = x++, .b = x--) depends on the declaration order of a and b.

Compound literals

C3 has C's compound literals, but unlike C's cast style syntax (MyStruct) { 1, 2 }, it uses C++ syntax: MyStruct { 1, 2 }.

struct Foo
{
    int a;
    double b;
}

fn void test1(Foo x) { ... }

...

test1(Foo { 1, 2.0 });

Arrays follow the same syntax:

fn void test2(int[3] x) { ... }

...

test2(int[3] { 1, 2, 3 });

Note that when it's possible, inferring the type is allowed, so we have for the above examples:

test1({ 1, 2.0 });
test2({ 1, 2, 3 });

One may take the address of temporaries, using && (rather than & for normal variables). This allows the following:

Passing a slice

fn void test(int[] y) { ... }

// Using &&
test(&&int[3]{ 1, 2, 3 });

// Explicitly slicing:
test(int[3]{ 1, 2, 3 }[..]));

// Using a slice directly as a temporary:
test(int[]{ 1, 2, 3 }));

Passing the pointer to an array

fn void test1(int[3]* z) { ... }
fn void test2(int* z) { ... }

test1(&&int[3]{ 1, 2, 3 }));
test2(&&int[3]{ 1, 2, 3 }));

Constant expressions

In C3 all constant expressions are guaranteed to be calculated at compile time. The following are considered constant expressions:

  1. The null literal.
  2. Boolean, floating point and integer literals.
  3. The result of arithmetics on constant expressions.
  4. Compile time variables (prefixed with $)
  5. Global constant variables with initializers that are constant expressions.
  6. The result of macros that does not generate code and only uses constant expressions.
  7. The result of a cast if the value is cast to a boolean, floating point or integer type and the value that is converted is a constant expression.
  8. String literals.
  9. Initializer lists containing constant values.

Some things that are not constant expressions:

  1. Any pointer that isn't the null literal, even if it's derived from a constant expression.
  2. The result of a cast except for casts of constant expressions to a numeric type.
  3. Compound literals - even when values are constant expressions.

Including binary data

The $embed(...) function includes the contents of a file into the compilation as a constant array of bytes:

char[*] my_image = $embed("my_image.png");

The result of an embed work similar to a string literal and can implicitly convert to a char*, void*, char[], char[*] and String.

Limiting length

It's possible to limit the length of included with the optional second parameter.

char[4] my_data = $embed("foo.txt", 4];
Failure to load at compile time and defaults

Usually it's a compile time error if the file can't be included, but sometimes it's useful to only optionally include it. If this is desired, declare the left hand side to be an optional:

char[]! my_image = $embed("my_image.png");

my_image with be an optional IoError.FILE_NOT_FOUND? if the image is missing.

This also allows us to pass a default value using ??:

char[] my_image = $embed("my_image.png") ?? DEFAULT_IMAGE_DATA;