Syntax

The Language Reference & Guide aims to be – as the title suggests – a reference and guide in one. Since a programming language needs formal definitions, you’ll see syntactic definitions from time to time. The notation used and the most basic syntactic definitions are described in this chapter. The meaning of these structures will be described in detail in the following chapters.

Hint

If you don’t really care about syntactic definitions, no worries! You should be able to follow along without problems. Just skip this chapter and ignore them.

Note that the grammar specified in the Language Reference & Guide is not a complete description of the Emojicode language. The grammar alone allows programs that are not valid. The accompanying text will outline further rules that programs must obey.

Notation

The Language Reference & Guide uses a modified BNF grammar notation. Consider this example:

hippo ⟶ rhinoceros 🥘
panther ⟶ [🍞] hyena | 🍮

The first line of the above example defines a rule called hippo, which states that a hippo consists of a rhinoceros, which is another rule as indicated by the purple background, and the emoji 🥘.

The grammar notation we use in the documentation follows these rules:

Every rule begins with a name and ⟶ (read “consists of”).
A vertical bar (|) is used to separate alternatives. E.g.
```
foo ⟶ mouse dog | hippo
```
denotes that a foo may consist of a mouse and a dog or of only a hippo.
Rules can be broken into multiple lines starting with the same name, the new line then is an alternative as if the contents right to the ⟶ was on the same line with previous definition separated by a vertical bar. E.g.
```
foo ⟶ mouse dog | hippo
```
and
```
foo ⟶ mouse dog
foo ⟶ hippo
```
indicate the same thing.
Parts enclosed in square brackets ([ and ]) are optional: they can occur but do not have to.
Whitespaces are never terminals but only appear to improve formatting.
The not sign (￢) followed by a terminal or non-terminal indicates that the terminal or non-terminal may not occur here even though the next non-terminal that is not preceeded by a not sign indicates it could occur.
Terminals beginning with the character sequence U+ substitue the character with an Unicode code point. If two code points are connected with a – this indicates that all characters in this range shall be allowed.

Document Syntax

Every Emojicode source code document consists of any number of document-statements.

document-statement ⟶ package-import | include | package-documentation-comment
document-statement ⟶ type-definition | link-hints
document-statement ⟶ start-flag
include ⟶ 📜 string-literal
start-flag ⟶ 🏁 [return-type] block

Statement and Expression

The smallest standalone elements of Emojicode’s normal program code is called statement.

statement ⟶ expression | assignment | declaration | operator-assignment
statement ⟶ return | error-check-control | raise | method-assignment
statement ⟶ if | for-in | repeat-while | unsafe-block
expression ⟶ numeric-literal | 👍 | 👎
expression ⟶ collection-literal | string-literal | no-value
expression ⟶ method-call | unwrap | this
expression ⟶ operator-expression | group
expression ⟶ callable-call | closure
expression ⟶ super | reraise | cast
expression ⟶ type-value | instantiation | size-of | unique

Emoji and Variable

unicode ⟶ any Unicode character defined in Unicode 10
variable ⟶ variable-head [variable-parts]
variable-head ⟶ ￢integer-prefix ￢number ￢emoji unicode
variable-parts ⟶ variable-part | variable-part variable-parts
variable-part ⟶ ￢emoji unicode

Numeric Literals

numeric-literal ⟶ integer-literal float-literal
integer-literal ⟶ [integer-prefix] integer-number
integer-prefix ⟶ + | - | 0x
float-literal ⟶ [float-prefix] numbers
float-prefix ⟶ + | -
integer-numbers ⟶ integer-number | integer-number integer-numbers
integer-number ⟶ number | a | b | c | d | e | f | A | B | C | D | E | F
numbers ⟶ number | number numbers
number ⟶ 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Emoji

emoji ⟶ emoji-main | emoji-modifier-base emoji-modifier | zwj | regional-indicator regional-indicators
zwj ⟶ emoji U+200D emoji
emoji-main ⟶ emoji-main U+FE0F
emoji-main ⟶ U+00A9 | U+00AE
emoji-main ⟶ U+203C | U+2049 | U+2122 | U+2139 | U+2194–U+2199
emoji-main ⟶ U+21A9–U+21AA | U+231A–U+231B | U+2328 | U+23CF | U+23E9–U+23F3
emoji-main ⟶ U+23F8–U+23FA | U+24C2 | U+25AA–U+25AB | U+25B6 | U+25C0
emoji-main ⟶ U+25FB–U+25FE | U+2600–U+2604 | U+260E | U+2611 | U+2614–U+2615
emoji-main ⟶ U+2618 | U+261D | U+2620 | U+2622–U+2623 | U+2626
emoji-main ⟶ U+262A | U+262E–U+262F | U+2638–U+263A | U+2640 | U+2642
emoji-main ⟶ U+2648–U+2653 | U+265F–U+2660 | U+2663 | U+2665–U+2666 | U+2668
emoji-main ⟶ U+267B | U+267E–U+267F | U+2692–U+2697 | U+2699 | U+269B–U+269C
emoji-main ⟶ U+26A0–U+26A1 | U+26AA–U+26AB | U+26B0–U+26B1 | U+26BD–U+26BE | U+26C4–U+26C5
emoji-main ⟶ U+26C8 | U+26CE | U+26CF | U+26D1 | U+26D3–U+26D4
emoji-main ⟶ U+26E9–U+26EA | U+26F0–U+26F5 | U+26F7–U+26FA | U+26FD | U+2702
emoji-main ⟶ U+2705 | U+2708–U+2709 | U+270A–U+270B | U+270C–U+270D | U+270F
emoji-main ⟶ U+2712 | U+2714 | U+2716 | U+271D | U+2721
emoji-main ⟶ U+2728 | U+2733–U+2734 | U+2744 | U+2747 | U+274C
emoji-main ⟶ U+274E | U+2753–U+2755 | U+2757 | U+2763–U+2764 | U+2795–U+2797
emoji-main ⟶ U+27A1 | U+27B0 | U+27BF | U+2934–U+2935 | U+2B05–U+2B07
emoji-main ⟶ U+2B1B–U+2B1C | U+2B50 | U+2B55 | U+3030 | U+303D
emoji-main ⟶ U+3297 | U+3299 | U+1F004 | U+1F0CF | U+1F170–U+1F171
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F17E | U+1F17F | U+1F18E | U+1F191–U+1F19A | U+1F1E6–U+1F1FF
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F201–U+1F202 | U+1F21A | U+1F22F | U+1F232–U+1F23A | U+1F250–U+1F251
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F300–U+1F320 | U+1F321 | U+1F324–U+1F32C | U+1F32D–U+1F32F | U+1F330–U+1F335
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F336 | U+1F337–U+1F37C | U+1F37D | U+1F37E–U+1F37F | U+1F380–U+1F393
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F396–U+1F397 | U+1F399–U+1F39B | U+1F39E–U+1F39F | U+1F3A0–U+1F3C4 | U+1F3C5
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F3C6–U+1F3CA | U+1F3CB–U+1F3CE | U+1F3CF–U+1F3D3 | U+1F3D4–U+1F3DF | U+1F3E0–U+1F3F0
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F3F3–U+1F3F5 | U+1F3F7 | U+1F3F8–U+1F3FF | U+1F400–U+1F43E | U+1F43F
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F440 | U+1F441 | U+1F442–U+1F4F7 | U+1F4F8 | U+1F4F9–U+1F4FC
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F4FD | U+1F4FF | U+1F500–U+1F53D | U+1F549–U+1F54A | U+1F54B–U+1F54E
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F550–U+1F567 | U+1F56F–U+1F570 | U+1F573–U+1F579 | U+1F57A | U+1F587
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F58A–U+1F58D | U+1F590 | U+1F595–U+1F596 | U+1F5A4 | U+1F5A5
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F5A8 | U+1F5B1–U+1F5B2 | U+1F5BC | U+1F5C2–U+1F5C4 | U+1F5D1–U+1F5D3
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F5DC–U+1F5DE | U+1F5E1 | U+1F5E3 | U+1F5E8 | U+1F5EF
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F5F3 | U+1F5FA | U+1F5FB–U+1F5FF | U+1F600 | U+1F601–U+1F610
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F611 | U+1F612–U+1F614 | U+1F615 | U+1F616 | U+1F617
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F618 | U+1F619 | U+1F61A | U+1F61B | U+1F61C–U+1F61E
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F61F | U+1F620–U+1F625 | U+1F626–U+1F627 | U+1F628–U+1F62B | U+1F62C
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F62D | U+1F62E–U+1F62F | U+1F630–U+1F633 | U+1F634 | U+1F635–U+1F640
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F641–U+1F642 | U+1F643–U+1F644 | U+1F645–U+1F64F | U+1F680–U+1F6C5 | U+1F6CB–U+1F6CF
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F6D0 | U+1F6D1–U+1F6D2 | U+1F6E0–U+1F6E5 | U+1F6E9 | U+1F6EB–U+1F6EC
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F6F0 | U+1F6F3 | U+1F6F4–U+1F6F6 | U+1F6F7–U+1F6F8 | U+1F6F9
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F910–U+1F918 | U+1F919–U+1F91E | U+1F91F | U+1F920–U+1F927 | U+1F928–U+1F92F
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F930 | U+1F931–U+1F932 | U+1F933–U+1F93A | U+1F93C–U+1F93E | U+1F940–U+1F945
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F947–U+1F94B | U+1F94C | U+1F94D–U+1F94F | U+1F950–U+1F95E | U+1F95F–U+1F96B
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F96C–U+1F970 | U+1F973–U+1F976 | U+1F97A | U+1F97C–U+1F97F | U+1F980–U+1F984
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F985–U+1F991 | U+1F992–U+1F997 | U+1F998–U+1F9A2 | U+1F9B0–U+1F9B9 | U+1F9C0
emoji-main ⟶ U+1F9C1–U+1F9C2 | U+1F9D0–U+1F9E6 | U+1F9E7–U+1F9FF
emoji-modifier-base ⟶ emoji-modifier-base U+FE0F
emoji-modifier-base ⟶ U+261D | U+26F9 | U+270A–U+270B | U+270C–U+270D | U+1F385
emoji-modifier-base ⟶ U+1F3C2–U+1F3C4 | U+1F3C7 | U+1F3CA | U+1F3CB–U+1F3CC | U+1F442–U+1F443
emoji-modifier-base ⟶ U+1F446–U+1F450 | U+1F466–U+1F469 | U+1F46E | U+1F470–U+1F478 | U+1F47C
emoji-modifier-base ⟶ U+1F481–U+1F483 | U+1F485–U+1F487 | U+1F4AA | U+1F574–U+1F575 | U+1F57A
emoji-modifier-base ⟶ U+1F590 | U+1F595–U+1F596 | U+1F645–U+1F647 | U+1F64B–U+1F64F | U+1F6A3
emoji-modifier-base ⟶ U+1F6B4–U+1F6B6 | U+1F6C0 | U+1F6CC | U+1F918 | U+1F919–U+1F91C
emoji-modifier-base ⟶ U+1F91E | U+1F91F | U+1F926 | U+1F930 | U+1F931–U+1F932
emoji-modifier-base ⟶ U+1F933–U+1F939 | U+1F93D–U+1F93E | U+1F9B5–U+1F9B6 | U+1F9B8–U+1F9B9 | U+1F9D1–U+1F9DD
emoji-modifier ⟶ U+1F3FB-U+1F3FF
regional-indicators ⟶ regional-indicator [regional-indicators]
regional-indicator ⟶ U+1F1E6-U+1F1FF
emoji-id ⟶ ￢binary-operator ￢👍 ￢👎 ￢🔟 ￢🆕 ￢❗️ ￢❓￢🤛 ￢🤜 ￢↩️ ￢⤴️ ￢🔂 ￢🔁 ￢🚨 ￢↪️ ￢🙅 ￢🍉 ￢🍇 ￢🆗 ￢👇 ￢☣️ ￢➡️ ￢⬅️ ￢🖍 ￢🐇 ￢🐊 ￢🦃 ￢🕊 ￢📗 ￢🔤 ￢🎍 emoji | multi-emoji
multi-emoji ⟶ emoji-id 🔸 emoji-id

Decorators

Decorators are a combination of 🎍 and another emoji and are used for keywords that have a very specific meaning or are seldom used.

decorator ⟶ 🎍 emoji-main

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