Syntax Reference

This page details the complete syntax rules for the Animal language.

Code Structure

Animal programs consist of statements, separated implicitly by newlines or explicitly by semicolons (;).

Comments

Comments in Animal start with :: and continue to the end of the line:

:: This is a comment
x -> 5  :: This is an inline comment

Variables

Variable Naming

Variable names:

Must start with a letter or underscore
Can contain letters, numbers, and underscores
Are case-sensitive
Cannot be a reserved keyword

valid_name -> 10
_also_valid -> 20
ThisIsValid -> 30

:: Invalid examples:
:: 1name -> 40        (starts with number)
:: name-with-dash -> 50 (contains dash)
:: growl -> 60        (reserved keyword)

Variable Assignment

The assignment operator is ->:

name -> "Luna"
age -> 5

:: Multiple assignments
a -> b -> c -> 10  :: All variables get value 10

Variable Type Annotations

Optional type annotations use a colon after the variable name:

count: int -> 5
name: string -> "Buddy"
is_active: bool -> true

Data Types

Animal supports the following primitive data types:

Integers

Whole numbers:

a -> 42
b -> -7

Floats

Numbers with decimal points:

pi -> 3.14159
half -> 0.5

Booleans

true or false values:

is_valid -> true
has_error -> false

Strings

Text enclosed in single or double quotes:

name -> "Alice"
message -> 'Hello, world!'

Lists

Ordered collections of items, enclosed in square brackets:

numbers -> [1, 2, 3, 4]
mixed -> ["apple", 5, true]

Operators

Arithmetic Operators

Animal Operator	Equivalent	Description
`meow`	`+`	Addition
`woof`	`-`	Subtraction
`moo`	`*`	Multiplication
`drone`	`/`	Division
`squeak`	`%`	Modulo (remainder)
`soar`	`^`	Exponentiation
`purr`	`+` (for strings)	String concatenation

Comparison Operators

Operator	Description
`==`	Equal to
`!=`	Not equal to
`>`	Greater than
`<`	Less than
`>=`	Greater than or equal to
`<=`	Less than or equal to

Logical Operators

Operator	Description
`and`	Logical AND
`or`	Logical OR
`not`	Logical NOT

Precedence

Operators follow this precedence order (highest to lowest):

Parentheses ()
Exponentiation soar
Unary plus/minus +, -
Multiplication, Division, Modulo moo, drone, squeak
Addition, Subtraction meow, woof
Comparison operators >, <, >=, <=, ==, !=
Logical operators and, or
Assignment ->

Parentheses can be used to override the default precedence:

:: Default precedence: multiplication before addition
result -> 2 meow 3 moo 4   :: 2 + (3 * 4) = 14

:: Override with parentheses
result -> (2 meow 3) moo 4   :: (2 + 3) * 4 = 20

Reserved Keywords

The following are reserved keywords in Animal and cannot be used as variable names:

:: Control flow
growl, sniff, wag, pounce, leap

:: Functions/structures
howl, nest

:: Input/output
roar, listen

:: Return
sniffback

:: File operations
fetch, drop, drop_append, sniff_file, fetch_json, fetch_csv

:: Control
whimper, hiss

:: Other
mimic, _

Identifiers that match these keywords cannot be used as variable or function names.