Variables

The let builtin is used to create local variables within the shell, and apply basic arithmetic to variables. The export keyword may be used to do the same for the creation of external variables. Variables cannot be created the POSIX way, as the POSIX way is awkard to read/write and parse.

let string_variable = "hello string"
let array_variable = [ hello array ]
echo $string_variable
echo @array_variable

hello string
hello array

Multiple Assignments

Ion also supports setting multiple values at the same time

let a b = one two
echo $a
echo $b

let a b = one [two three four]
echo $a
echo @b

one
two
one
two three four

Type-Checked Assignments

It's also possible to designate the type that a variable is allowed to be initialized with. Boolean type assignments will also normalize inputs into either true or false. When an invalid value is supplied, the assignment operation will fail and an error message will be printed. All assignments after the failed assignment will be ignored.

let a:bool = 1
let b:bool = true
let c:bool = n
echo $a $b $c
let fail:bool = ""

let a:str b:[str] c:int d:[float] = one [two three] 4 [5.1 6.2 7.3]
echo $a
echo @b
echo $c
echo @d

true true false
ion: assignment error: fail: expected bool
one
two three
4
5.1 6.2 7.3

Dropping Variables

Variables may be dropped from a scope with the drop keyword. Considering that a variable can only be assigned to one type at a time, this will drop whichever value is assigned to that type.

let string = "hello"
drop string
let array = [ hello world ]
drop array

Supported Primitive Types

str: A string, the essential primitive of a shell.
bool: A value which is either true or false.
int: An integer is any whole number.
float: A float is a rational number (fractions represented as a decimal).

Arrays

The [T] type, where T is a primitive, is an array of that primitive type.

Maps

Likewise, hmap[T] and bmap[T] work in a similar fashion, but are a collection of key/value pairs, where the key is always a str, and the value is defined by the T.

Ion Documentation