Control Flow

This chapter covers all the ways to control what your program does next: if/orif/else conditions, while loops, for loops, and the loop/break/continue keywords.

If/orif/else

lil’s if/orif/else works like Python but without colons or parentheses. In Python you write:

if x > 5:
    print("big")
elif x > 0:
    print("small")
else:
    print("zero or negative")

In lil the same logic looks like:

if x > 5 {
  write("big")
} orif x > 0 {
  write("small")
} else {
  write("zero or negative")
}

Conditions don’t need parentheses around them. Just write the expression directly after if or orif. The braces are required even for single-line bodies.

elif still works as an alias for orif.

You can store condition results in variables:

is_positive = x > 0
if is_positive {
  write("x is positive")
}

Since conditions return 1 (true) or 0 (false), you can use them in arithmetic:

count = (x > 10) + (y > 10) + (z > 10)
write("variables over 10:", count)

Loop types

lil has three kinds of loops covered on their own pages:

• While loops - loop while a condition holds
• For loops - iterate over a numeric range
• Loop blocks - infinite loop with explicit exit

All three support break and continue. (stop is a kept alias of break.)

Short-circuit &&

&& evaluates the right side only if the left side is truthy:

while i < 10 && arr[i] != "" {
    i = i + 1
}

Statement separator ;

Multiple statements on one line with ;:

a = 5 ; b = 10 ; write(a + b)