• Statements

    Statements form the basis of Kipper next to expressions, and perform the basic operations and define the logic in your program. They can be easily identified with their usage of either curly brackets ({ }) or a semicolon (;).

    Every operation in a Kipper program must be contained in a statement to be valid. This also includes expressions, which can never be written alone.

    List of statements in Kipper

    Expression Statement

    An expression statement is a simple expression that ends in a semicolon (;) and evaluates one or more expressions, without the involvement of any other statements.

    Syntax

    EXPRESSION;

    Examples

    Common examples of expression statements are with increment or decrement expressions ( val++/val--) that simply add or subtract 1 to/from a value. These often do not require any other expressions, and can simply be used as a whole statement, like this: 

    // Defining a variable
var increase_this: num = 4;
increase_this++; // Expression statement -> 5
increase_this--; // Expression statement -> 4

    Compound Statement

    A compound statement is also called block of code, and defines, as already explained in variables, a scope for variables. Compound statements are commonly used together with other statements, such as if-statements, while-loops and for-loops.

    Syntax

    {
  STATEMENTS (OPTIONAL)...
}

    If Statement

    This also has its own docs page, which can be accessed here.

    If-statements or also if-else-statements make up an essential part of every program. These statements check if a specified condition is met and react accordingly. If the specified condition isn’t met, the program will execute a different code, which may be specified inside an else code block.

    Syntax

    They must have a single starting if, may have multiple extending else if branches and can have a single ending else branch, which is evaluated if the previous condition were all false. 

    if (CONDITION) STATEMENT;
// Required
else if (CONDITION) STATEMENT;
// Optional - No limit for the amount of 'else if' branches
else STATEMENT; // Optional

    Examples

    // Simple comparison of a value
var var1: num = 4;
if (var1 == 4) {
  call print("It's 4");
} else {
  call print("It's not 4");
}

// Simple else-if branch chaining
var var2: num = 5;
if (var2 < 5) {
  call print("It's less than 5");
} else if (var2 == 5) {
  call print("It's 5");
} else {
  call print("It's more than 4");
}

    For-loop Statement

    Released in v0.10.0 - Please update your version to access this feature.

    This also has its own docs page, which can be accessed here.

    For-loops are statements with a loop-expression, a loop condition and a statement body that are executed as long as a specified condition is met.

    For-loops have the unique attribute, unlike while-loops and do-while-loops, of having an executable LOOP_EXPRESSION, which is evaluated at the end of every loop cycle. This LOOP_EXPRESSION can be used to do repeating tasks at the end of a loop cycle, like calling a function or increasing a counter.

    Syntax

    for (INIT_EXPRESSION(OPTIONAL); CONDITION(OPTIONAL); LOOP_EXPRESSION(OPTIONAL)) STATEMENT;

    The execution of a for-loop follows this schema:

    • Evaluate INIT_EXPRESSION, if it exists (Only the first time).
    • Check CONDITION, if it exists, before running the STATEMENT. If CONDITION is false, then the loop will be stopped!
    • Run STATEMENT if CONDITION was true.
    • Evaluate LOOP_EXPRESSION after finishing the execution of STATEMENT, and the loop was not stopped using return; or break;.

    While-loop Statement

    Released in v0.10.0 - Please update your version to access this feature.

    This also has its own docs page, which can be accessed here.

    While-loops are code blocks that are executed multiple times as long as the specified CONDITION is met. The behaviour of while-loops is very similar to do-while-loops, and in some cases it even might be better to use do-while than while-loops, so watch out for opportunities to replace while-loops with do-while loops.

    Syntax

    while (CONDITION) STATEMENT;

    The execution of a while-loop follows this schema:

    • Check CONDITION, if it exists, before running the STATEMENT. If CONDITION is false, then the loop will be stopped!
    • Run STATEMENT if CONDITION was true.

    Do-while-loop Statement

    Released in v0.10.0 - Please update your version to access this feature.

    This also has its own docs page, which can be accessed here.

    Do-while-loops are loops with a similar behaviour to while-loops, with the main difference being that do-while loops run the statement once before starting evaluating its condition. Afterwards the statement is only run if the CONDITION is met.

    Syntax

    do STATEMENT while (CONDITION);

    The execution of a do-while-loop follows this schema:

    • Run STATEMENT (Only the first time).
    • Check CONDITION, if it exists, before running the STATEMENT again. If CONDITION is false, then the loop will be stopped!
    • Run STATEMENT if CONDITION was true.

    Jump Statement

    Jump statements are statements that can stop the execution of a function or a loop (while-loops, do-while-loops or for-loops) prematurely.

    Jump statements must always have a valid target (parent statement) that can be determined at compile time, otherwise the statement is invalid and an error will be thrown.

    These jump statements are:

    • break - Stops a while-loop, do-while-loop or for-loop.
    • return - Returns from a functions with an optional specific return value (Must match function return type).
    • continue - Jumps directly to the execution of the next loop cycle and will compare the loop-condition again.

    Syntax

    // Only valid in functions
return VALUE(OPTIONAL); // 'VALUE' is only required if the return type of the function is not 'void'

// Only valid in loops
break;

// Only valid in loops
continue;