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Data Type

This document describes the various data types provided by the Wave programming language. In Wave, you can store and operate on values using various data types, each clearly defining the way of representing and handling the data in memory.

Clearly specifying data types is one of the core design philosophies of Wave. This allows you to clearly express the intent of your code, catch errors early at compile time, and ensure efficient memory use and stable execution.

Integer Type​

The integer type is used to store integer values. Wave commonly uses i32 (signed 32-bit integer) and u32 (unsigned 32-bit integer) by default, but allows for very fine-grained specification of integer bit sizes as needed.

Signed integer types are available from i8 to i1024, while unsigned integer types can be used from u8 to u1024. This allows for a wide range of requirements to be met, from simple calculations to large integer operations, cryptographic processing, and low-level system programming.

The following is a simple example using integer types.

var a: i32 = 100;
var b: u32 = 200;

Floating-Point Type​

The floating-point type is used to store real-number values. The default floating-point type used in Wave is f32, but larger sizes can be selected for higher precision.

Wave provides floating-point types from f32 to f128, allowing users to choose between precision and performance. This allows for real number operations to be used in various applications, from general numerical calculations to precise scientific computations.

Below is an example using floating-point types.

var pi: f32 = 3.14;
var e: f64 = 2.71828;

String Type​

The string type is used to handle text data. In Wave, strings are declared using the str keyword and string literals are expressed with double quotes (").

Strings are widely used for message output, handling user inputs, and processing text-based data in programs.

Here is a basic example of using the string type.

var text: str = "Hello Wave";

Boolean Type​

The boolean type represents True or False values. Wave uses the bool type, with values designated as true or false.

The boolean type plays a key role in conditionals and loops, used to control the flow of the program.

var isActive: bool = true;
var isAvailable: bool = true;

Character Type​

The character type is used to store a single character. Declared using the char keyword, it can hold only a single character.

Character literals are expressed using single quotes (').

var letter: char = 'A';

Byte Type​

The byte type is used to store data of 1-byte size. This type is useful for low-level data processing such as binary data handling, file I/O, and network programming.

In Wave, byte types are declared using the byte keyword.

var byteData: byte = 0xFF;

Pointer Type​

Pointer types are used to directly reference memory addresses. In Wave, pointer types are declared in the form ptr<T>, allowing safe expression of memory addresses of specific types.

Pointers are used for low-level memory access, often utilized in system programming or performance-critical code.

var ptr: ptr<T> = &someVariable;

Array Type​

Array types are used to sequentially store multiple values of the same data type. In Wave, arrays are declared in the form array<type, size>, and the size is explicitly specified at compile time.

This clarifies the memory structure and allows stable access.

var numbers: array<i32, 5> = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

Each data type is designed to allow selection of appropriate range and size for their purpose and characteristics. Choosing the proper data type results in efficient memory management as well as significantly improved code stability and readability.