Grammar Overview

ZGL is a data interchange language (also known as a data exchange language).

Here is an example-based overview to ZGL:

element	example(s)	note
boolean	`true` `false`
integer	`23` `0x17` `0b10001`
float	`2.7182` `3.0e8`
string	`"a gifted raconteur"` `#"dijo "¡cuidado!"#`
date	`2021-03-18`
datetime	`2021-03-18T16:31:00-04:00`
URL	`https://www.zg-lang.org`	①
expression delimiter	`,`	②
list	`[5, 12, "thirteen"]`	③
set	`#{"Picard", "Ryker", "Data"}`	③
map	`{"x": 3, "y": 4, "z": 5}`	③
quantity	`<2.54 cm>` `<1.21 gigawatts>`	④
variable	`born_in`
entity name	`/person/Mark_Twain`
path	`core` `::units::metric`
item terminator	`;`
use	`:use ::history::Roman;`
bind	`π = 3.14159;` `ZGL = /language/Z_Graph_Language;`	⑤
alias	`:alias /person/FDR /person/Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt;`	⑥
graph	`ZGL homepage https://www.zg-lang.org ;`	①
graph with group	`π is { /math/real_number, /math/irrational_number, };`

Notes

① URLs must be terminated with whitespace. See decision log.

② Trailing commas are allowed.

③ Lists, sets, and maps are heterogenous collections.

⑤ = immutably binds a value to a variable.

⑥ Entity ids cannot be accessed directly. If you want two entity names to point to the same entity id, use :alias.

⑦ Zero or more entity names may be aliased to each entity id. In other words, not all entity ids have corresponding entity names.

Last update:
2021-03-26