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Not every Rustacean has a background in systems programming, nor in computer
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science, so we've added explanations of terms that might be unfamiliar.
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- ### Arity
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-
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- Arity refers to the number of arguments a function or operation takes.
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-
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- ``` rust
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- let x = (2 , 3 );
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- let y = (4 , 6 );
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- let z = (8 , 2 , 6 );
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- ```
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-
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- In the example above ` x ` and ` y ` have arity 2. ` z ` has arity 3.
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-
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### Abstract Syntax Tree
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- When a compiler is compiling your program, it does a number of different
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- things. One of the things that it does is turn the text of your program into an
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- ‘abstract syntax tree’, or ‘AST’. This tree is a representation of the
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- structure of your program. For example, ` 2 + 3 ` can be turned into a tree:
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+ When a compiler is compiling your program, it does a number of different things.
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+ One of the things that it does is turn the text of your program into an
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+ ‘abstract syntax tree’, or ‘AST’. This tree is a representation of the structure
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+ of your program. For example, ` 2 + 3 ` can be turned into a tree:
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``` text
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+
@@ -37,3 +25,41 @@ And `2 + (3 * 4)` would look like this:
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/ \
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3 4
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```
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+
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+ ### Arity
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+
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+ Arity refers to the number of arguments a function or operation takes.
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+
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+ ``` rust
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+ let x = (2 , 3 );
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+ let y = (4 , 6 );
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+ let z = (8 , 2 , 6 );
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+ ```
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+
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+ In the example above ` x ` and ` y ` have arity 2. ` z ` has arity 3.
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+
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+ ### Expression
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+
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+ In computer programming, an expression is a combination of values, constants,
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+ variables, operators and functions that evaluate to a single value. For example,
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+ ` 2 + (3 * 4) ` is an expression that returns the value 14. It is worth noting
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+ that expressions can have side-effects. For example, a function included in an
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+ expression might perform actions other than simply returning a value.
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+
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+ ### Expression-Oriented Language
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+
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+ In early programming languages, [ expressions] [ expression ] and
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+ [ statements] [ statement ] were two separate syntactic categories: expressions had
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+ a value and statements did things. However, later languages blurred this
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+ distinction, allowing expressions to do things and statements to have a value.
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+ In an expression-oriented language, (nearly) every statement is an expression
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+ and therefore returns a value. Consequently, these expression statements can
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+ themselves form part of larger expressions.
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+
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+ [ expression ] : glossary.html#expression
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+ [ statement ] : glossary.html#statement
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+
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+ ### Statement
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+
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+ In computer programming, a statement is the smallest standalone element of a
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+ programming language that commands a computer to perform an action.
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