Variables and Types

Declaring variables

Variables are declared with the var keyword, followed by a type and a name:

var int count = 0
var string name = "CColon"
var float pi = 3.14159
var bool active = true

Every variable must be initialized when declared.

Reassignment

After a variable is declared, you can reassign it without the var keyword:

var int x = 10
x = 20
x = x + 5

Types

CColon has eight built-in types:

`int`

64-bit signed integer.

Property	Value
Size	64 bits
Minimum value	-9,223,372,036,854,775,808
Maximum value	9,223,372,036,854,775,807

var int a = 42
var int b = -7
var int c = 1000000

`float`

64-bit floating-point number (IEEE 754 double precision).

Property	Value
Size	64 bits
Precision	~15 to 17 significant decimal digits
Minimum value	~5.0 x 10^-324
Maximum value	~1.8 x 10^308

var float pi = 3.14159
var float temp = -23.5
var float ratio = 0.75

`string`

A sequence of characters, enclosed in double quotes.

var string greeting = "Hello, World!"
var string empty = ""

Supported escape sequences:

Escape	Character
`\n`	Newline
`\t`	Tab
`\\`	Backslash
`\"`	Double quote

`bool`

A boolean value, either true or false.

var bool done = false
var bool ready = true

`list`

A dynamic, ordered collection of values. Lists can hold mixed types and grow or shrink at runtime.

var list numbers = [1, 2, 3]
var list mixed = ["hello", 42, true, 3.14]
var list empty = []

See Lists and Arrays for more.

`array`

A fixed-size collection. Created with the fixed() function. Once created, the length cannot change.

var array coords = fixed([10, 20, 30])

See Lists and Arrays for more.

`sint`

Arbitrary precision integer with no size limit. Works like Python's int. Use this when you need numbers larger than what int can hold, or when you want to avoid overflow entirely.

var sint big = 99999999999999999999999999999999
var sint x = 42.tosint()

Integer literals that are too large for 64-bit are automatically stored as sint. See sint for full details.

`dict`

A key-value mapping. Keys are strings, values can be any type.

var dict person = {"name": "Alice", "age": 30}
console.println(person["name"])

See Dictionaries for more.

Constants

Use the const keyword to declare variables that cannot be reassigned:

const float pi = 3.14159
const string name = "CColon"
const int max = 100

Attempting to reassign a constant produces an error:

const int x = 5
x = 10  // error: cannot reassign constant 'x'

Constants work in both global and local scope. Local constants are checked at compile time, global constants at runtime.

Type conversions

Values can be converted between types using built-in methods:

var int n = 42
var string s = n.tostring()       // "42"
var float f = n.tofloat()         // 42.0

var string numStr = "123"
var int parsed = numStr.toint()   // 123
var float pf = numStr.tofloat()   // 123.0

var float x = 3.7
var int truncated = x.toint()     // 3

See Methods on Values for the full list.