Pike

Appeared in:
1994
Influenced by:
Paradigm:
Typing discipline:
File extensions:
.pike
Versions and implementations (Collapse all | Expand all):
Programming language

Pike is a dynamic interpreted language with a C-like syntax.

It was created in 1994 as a GPL version of LPC (which was not licensed for commercial use). Initially it was called µLPC (for micro LPC), but later was renamed for branding purposes.

Pike is an object-oriented language, with built-in garbage collection and a flexible system of data types. It is considered to be one of the fastest scripting languages existing.

Elements of syntax:

Inline comments //
Non-nestable comments /* ... */
Case-sensitivity yes
Variable assignment varname = value;
Variable declaration vartype varname;
Variable declaration with assignment vartype varname = value;
Grouping expressions ( ... )
Block { ... }
Physical (shallow) equality ==
Physical (shallow) inequality !=
Deep equality equal()
Deep inequality !equal()
Comparison < > <= >= == !=
Function definition returntype(subtype) f(type1 p1, type2 p2, ...)
Function call f(a,b,...)
Function call with no parameters f()
Sequence ,
If - then if (condition){ ... }
If - then - else if (condition){ ... }else{ ... }
Loop forever while(1){ ... }
While condition do while (condition){ ... }
Do until condition do{ ... } while (!condition);
For each value in a numeric range, 1 increment for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++){ ... }
For each value in a numeric range, 1 decrement for (int i = 10; i >= 1; i--){ ... }

Pike logo
Pike logo

Links:

Examples:

Hello, World!:

Example for versions Pike 7.8 
void main() 
{
    write("Hello, World!\n");
}

Fibonacci numbers:

Example for versions Pike 7.8

This example uses recursive definition of Fibonacci numbers. 

int fibonacci(int n) 
{
    return ( n<=2 ? 1 : fibonacci(n-1) + fibonacci(n-2) );
}

void main() 
{
    for (int n=1; n<=16; n++)
        write(fibonacci(n)+", ");
    write("...\n");
}

Factorial:

Example for versions Pike 7.8

This example uses recursive factorial definition. Note that int data type is extended to bignum in case of overflow. 

int factorial(int n) 
{
    return ( n<=1 ? 1 : n * factorial(n-1) );
}

void main() 
{
    for (int n=0; n<=16; n++)
        write(n+"! = "+factorial(n)+"\n");
}

Quadratic equation:

Example for versions Pike 7.8 
void main() 
{
    int A = (int)Stdio.stdin->gets();
    if (A == 0) 
    {
        write("Not a quadratic equation.\n");
        return 0;
    }
    int B = (int)Stdio.stdin->gets();
    int C = (int)Stdio.stdin->gets();
    int D = (B*B-4*A*C);
    write(D+"\n");
    if (D == 0)
        write(sprintf("x = %f\n",-B/2.0/A));
    else if (D > 0) 
    {
        write(sprintf("x1 = %f\n", (-B+sqrt(D))/2.0/A));
        write(sprintf("x2 = %f\n", (-B-sqrt(D))/2.0/A));
    }
    else 
    {
        write(sprintf("x1 = (%f, %f)\n", -B/2.0/A, sqrt(-D)/2.0/A));
        write(sprintf("x1 = (%f, %f)\n", -B/2.0/A, -sqrt(-D)/2.0/A));
    }
}

CamelCase:

Example for versions Pike 7.8

This example implements character-by-character string processing. The only thing to note is that Pike provides no data type for characters. text[i] would return an integer — ASCII-code of the corresponding character. To get i-th character as a string variable, one has to use text[i..i] which is operation of extracting substring from a string. 

void main() 
{
    string text = lower_case(Stdio.stdin->gets());
    string cc = "";
    int i, lastSpace = 1;

    for (i=0; i<sizeof(text); i++) 
    {
        if (text[i] >= 'a' && text[i] <= 'z') 
        {
            if (lastSpace == 1)
                cc += upper_case(text[i..i]);
            else
                cc += text[i..i];
            lastSpace = 0;
        }
        else
            lastSpace = 1;
    }
    write(cc+"\n");
}