Elixir Programming Language: Printing, Comments, Line Endings, Identifiers, and Reserved Words

In this article delves into the fundamental aspects of Elixir, including printing, comments, line endings, identifiers, and reserved words, providing practical coding examples for a hands-on understanding.

Printing in Elixir

Printing in Elixir is straightforward, primarily using the IO.puts function. This function prints a string to the standard output followed by a new line.

Example

IO.puts("Hello, Elixir!")

For more control over output, Elixir also provides IO.write, which does not append a newline at the end.

IO.write("Hello, ")
IO.write("Elixir!")

Comments in Elixir

Comments are essential for making code understandable. Elixir supports single-line comments, which start with the # symbol.

Example

# This is a single-line comment in Elixir
IO.puts("Hello, Elixir!") # This prints a message

Elixir does not have built-in syntax for multi-line comments, but multiple single-line comments can be used to achieve the same effect.

# This is a multi-line comment
# in Elixir
IO.puts("Hello, Elixir!")

Line Endings

Elixir uses newline characters to signify the end of a line. It does not require semicolons or any special character to terminate statements.

Example

IO.puts("Hello")
IO.puts("Elixir")

Semicolons can be used to separate multiple statements on a single line if desired.

IO.puts("Hello"); IO.puts("Elixir")

Identifiers

Identifiers in Elixir are names given to variables, functions, and modules. They must start with a lowercase letter or an underscore and can contain alphanumeric characters and underscores.

Example

variable_name = "Elixir"
another_variable = 42

Identifiers starting with uppercase letters are reserved for module names.

defmodule MyModule do
  def greet do
    IO.puts("Hello from MyModule!")
  end
end

Reserved Words

Elixir has a set of reserved words that cannot be used as identifiers. These include:

after,case,catch,do,else,end,false,fn,for,if,import,in,nil,quote,receive,require,rescue,true,try,when

Example

# Incorrect usage
defmodule try do
  def example do
    IO.puts("This is not allowed")
  end
end

Correct usage:

defmodule ExampleModule do
  def try_example do
    IO.puts("This is allowed")
  end
end

Conclusion

In the upcoming article, We will discuss more about the data types of the Elixir Programming Language. Meanwhile, you can check out Elixir Programming Language: Functional, Scalable, and Fault-Tolerant Aritcle.