Operators¶

Operators are used as part of expressions to express operations on one or more values.

Some operators will work on one type, while others may work on any type.

Some operators operate on a single value (unary operators), while others operate on values on the either side (binary operators).

In the 'usage' column, we will use a and b to mean values or expressions. In the 'Assignment operators' section, a is either a variable or a property on an object. If either a or b is written with a capital letter (A and B), then it is a class.

Cheats¶

• Most JavaScript operators work in Imba.
• Ternary operator is if cond then x else y.
• === can be written as x is y (also x isnt y for negation).
• Negation can be written as not x.
• instanceof can be written as x isa Ctor.
• Conditional assignment when not nullable using x ?= y.
• Conditional member access when not nullable using x?:key and x?.key.
• new operator is written as a static method Ctor.new.
• There are no yield and ** operators.

List of operators¶

Arithmetic operators¶

op.	usage	description
-	-a	negative a
+	+a	plus a, or just a
+	a + b	add a to b
-	a - b	subtract b from a
*	a * b	multiply a by b
/	a / b	divide a by b
%	a % b	remainder of division of a by b
++	a++	increment then evaluate
++	++a	evaluate then increment
--	a--	decrement then evaluate
--	--a	evaluate then decrement

Comparison operators¶

op.	usage	description
is	a is b	a is identical to b (are same)
isnt	a isnt b	a is not identical to b (aren't same)
==	a == b	a equals b (but not identical)
!=	a != b	a does not equal b
===	a === b	same as a is b
!==	a !== b	same as a isnt b
>	a > b	a is greater than b
>=	a >= b	a is greater than or equals b
<	a < b	a is less than b
<=	a <= b	a is less than or equals b

Bitwise operators¶

op.	usage	description
~	~a	bitwise not a
&	a & b	bitwise a AND b
|	a | b	bitwise a OR b
^	a ^ b	bitwise a XOR b
>>	a >> b	bitwise signed right shift a by b positions
>>>	a >>> b	bitwise unsigned right shift a by b positions
<<	a << b	bitwise left shift a by b positions

Logical operators¶

op.	usage	description
not	not a	logical not a
!	!a	same as not a
and	a and b	logical a AND b
&&	a && b	same as a and b
or	a or b	logical a OR b (b evaluated when a is falsy)
||	a || b	same as a or b

Relational operators¶

op.	usage	description
in	a in b	whether value a exists in array b
isa	a isa B	whether a is an instance of class B
instanceof	a instanceof B	same as a isa b

Assignment operators¶

op.	usage	description
=	a = b	assign value b to variable a
?=	a ?= b	assign value b to a if a is nullable
+=	a += b	add b to a and assign to a
-=	a -= b	subtract b from a and assign to a
*=	a *= b	multiply a by b and assign to a
/=	a /= b	divide a by b and assign to a
%=	a %= b	divide a by b and assign the remainder to a
&=	a &= b	bitwise AND a and b and assign to a
|=	a |= b	bitwise OR a and b and assign to a
^=	b ^= b	bitwise XOR a and b and assign to a
>>=	a >>= b	bitwise sig. right shift a by b and assign to a
>>>=	a >>>= b	bitwise uns. right shift a by b and assign to a
<<=	a <<= b	bitwise left shift a by b and assign to a

Comma operator¶

op.	usage	description
,	a, b	evaluate a then b, evaluate everything as b

Grouping operator¶

op.	usage	description
(...)	(a)	evaluate a with priority

Member access¶

op.	usage	description
[ ]	a[b]	computed member b of an object/array a
:	a:b	member b of an object a
?:	a?:b	member b of an object a if a isn't nullable
.	a.b	invoke method b of object a
?.	a?.b	invoke method b object a if a isn't nullable

Other operators¶

op.	usage	description
.new	A.new b	create an instance of class A with argument b
delete	delete a:b	delete property b of object a
typeof	typeof a	the type of value a
await	await a	suspend an async function until a resolves

Ternary operator¶

op.	usage	description
if-then	if a then b else c	if a is truthy, then b otherwise c

Operator precedence¶

Not all operators have equal importance when an expression consists of multiple operators.

The order in which operators are evaluated depends on whether an operator is left- or right-associative.

Left-associative means that for a given operator X, a X b X c is treated as (a X b) X c: from left to right.

Right-associative means that for a given operator X, an expression a X b X c will evaluate as a X (b X c): from right to left.

All binary Imba operators are left-associative.

Some operators are also generally more important regardless of associativity. As in mathematics, multiplication and division are more important than addition and subtraction, for example.

The following is a list of all the operators ordered by importance. The 'score' column is there to provide an indication of what operators have the same importance.

score	op.
20	(...)
19	all member access operators
	function calls
	in
18	postfix increment and decrement
17	.new
16	logical and bitwise NOT
	unary arithmetic operators
	unary logical operators
	unary bitwise operators
	typeof
	delete
	await
15	(left blank for future use)
14	*, /, %
13	+, -
12	bitwise shift operators
11	>, >=, <, <=
	isa, instanceof
10	is, ==, ===, isnt, !==
9	&
8	^
7	|
6	and, &&
5	or, ||
4	ternary operator
	?:, ?.
3	all assignment operators
2	(left blank for future use)
1	,