Syntax Basics

Learning Echo from scratch?

Start with Lesson 1. This page is a compact syntax checklist for people who already know how to run Echo.

Statements end with ;. Blocks use { }. Method calls chain with ..

Basic Example

name: str = "Echo";

if name == "Echo" {
    say(name.upperCase());
}

Output

ECHO

How It Works

value: int = 10;
value = value + 1;

if value > 10 {
    say("big");
} else {
    say("small");
}

Output

big

• Every normal statement ends with ;.
• if, while, for, foreach, and block-form fn use braces and do not take a trailing semicolon.
• Whitespace is mostly ignored outside tokens.
• Newlines improve readability; they are not syntax.
• Method chaining works on values that expose methods.

Interactive input (needs stdin)

ask reads a line from standard input. Run this interactively (or pipe a line in). As a non-interactive file with no stdin it aborts with E2824 (end of input):

name: str = ask("Name: ").trim().upperCase();
say(name);

Common Mistakes

Python-style bare blocks

while true
    say("loop");

Treating newlines as statement terminators

name: str = "Echo"
age: int = 1;

Treating . as property access on non-class values

On ordinary values (numbers, strings, lists, hashes, …), a.b is not field access — with (...) it is a method call (name.upperCase()).

Class instances are different: field and property access work (p.x, getters/setters). See Variables and Types and Classes and Interfaces.

Related

• Variables and Types
• Operators
• Control Flow