Templates

Template strings let you embed variable values inside a string using {varname} with backtick strings. In Python this would be an f-string like f"hello {name}". In lil it’s `hello {name}`:

name = "alice"
age = 30
write(`my name is {name} and i am {age} years old`)

This prints my name is alice and i am 30 years old.

Template vs Concatenation

Without templates:

greeting = "hello " + name + " you are " + age + " years old"

With templates:

greeting = `hello {name} you are {age} years old`

Templates are cleaner for anything more than a single concatenation.

Practical example

username = "bob"
score = 95
msg = `player {username} scored {score} points`
write(msg)

Mixing with library calls

now = minimal@date
write(`the time is {now}`)

rand = random@math()
write(`your lucky number is {rand}`)

Templates in conditions

name = read@file("name.txt")
if len@string(name) > 0 {
  write(`welcome, {name}`)
}

What happens with undefined variables

If you use a variable name that doesn’t exist in a template, it evaluates to 0 (for numbers) or “” (for strings):

write(`value is {undefined_var}`)   : prints "value is 0"