System Library

The std/system library in Tim Engine provides the standard functions, built-in operators (like +, -, *) and also comparison operators (like ==, !=, <, >) that are essential for performing various operations in your templates and scripts. This library is automatically imported into every template, so you can use its functions and operators without needing to import it explicitly.

The math utilities (abs, min, max, round, floor, ceil, sqrt) are also part of the system library — there is no separate std/math module to import.

🔗Operators

The system library registers the arithmetic, comparison, assignment and concatenation operators for int, float, bool and json values:

• Arithmetic: +, -, *, /
• Assignment: +=, -=, *=, /=
• Comparison: ==, !=, <, <=, >, >=
• Logical: not(x)
• Identity: is(a, b), isnot(a, b) — strict type-and-value comparison
• Concatenation: & — works with string, int, float, bool and json operands (e.g. "Hello " & name, $count & " items")

🔗Type conversion

🔗toInt

fn toInt(f: float): int

Convert a float to an integer.

🔗parseInt

fn parseInt(s: string): int

Parse a string into an integer.

🔗toFloat

fn toFloat(i: int): float
fn toFloat(i: json): float

Convert an integer or JSON number to a float.

🔗toBool

fn toBool(x: int): bool
fn toBool(x: string): bool
fn toBool(x: json): bool

Convert a value to a boolean.

🔗toString

fn toString(x: int): string
fn toString(x: float): string
fn toString(x: bool): string
fn toString(x: json): string
fn toString(x: object): string

Convert a value to its string representation. An object is converted to a JSON string.

🔗type

fn type(x: any): string

Return the type name of a value as a string.

🔗jsonType

fn jsonType(x: json): string

Return the type name of a JSON value.

🔗intVal / strVal

fn intVal(x: json): int
fn strVal(x: json): string

Extract the integer or string value from a JSON value.

🔗Length and index helpers

🔗len

fn len(x: string): int
fn len(x: json): int
fn len(x: array): int

Return the length of a string, JSON value or array.

🔗high

fn high(x: json): int
fn high(x: array): int

Return the highest valid index of a JSON value or array (i.e. len - 1).

🔗inc / dec

fn inc(i: int)
fn dec(i: int)

Increment or decrement an integer in place.

🔗Math functions

🔗abs

fn abs(n: int): int
fn abs(n: float): float

Return the absolute value of n.

🔗min / max

fn min(a: int, b: int): int
fn min(a: float, b: float): float
fn max(a: int, b: int): int
fn max(a: float, b: float): float

Return the smaller / larger of the two values.

🔗round / floor / ceil

fn round(n: float): int
fn floor(n: float): int
fn ceil(n: float): int

Round n to the nearest integer, round down, or round up.

🔗sqrt

fn sqrt(n: float): float

Return the square root of n.

🔗OS operations

The std/system library provides a minimal set of functions for performing various OS operations, such as reading and writing files, sleeping for a specified duration.

🔗readFile

fn readFile(path: string): string

Read a file and return its content as a string.

🔗writeFile

fn writeFile(path: string, content: string)

Write a file with the specified content.

🔗sleep

fn sleep(ms: int)

Sleep for a specified duration (in milliseconds).

🔗JSON parsing

The std/system library also includes functions for parsing JSON data, which can be useful for working with APIs or configuration files.

🔗parseJSON

fn parseJSON(content: string): json

Parse a JSON string and return it as a JSON value.

🔗loadJSON

fn loadJSON(path: string): json

Load JSON data from a file and return it as a JSON value.

🔗remoteJSON

fn remoteJSON(url: string): json

Load JSON data from a remote URL and return it as a JSON value. This function performs an HTTP GET request to the specified URL and parses the response as JSON.

🔗fetch

fn fetch(url: string): json
fn fetch(url: string, options: json): json

Perform an HTTP request and return the response as JSON. The options object can carry request settings.

🔗hasKey

fn hasKey(obj: json, key: string): bool

Check if a JSON object contains the given key.

🔗Random

🔗shuffle

fn shuffle(arr: array): array

Return a new array with the elements in random order.

🔗Output

🔗echo

fn echo(x: string | int | float | bool | json | nil | object | array | pointer)

Print a value to the standard output.

🔗assert

fn assert(condition: bool)

Assert that a condition is true; raises an error if it is not.

🔗HTML escaping

🔗escape

fn escape(s: string): string

Escape HTML special characters in s (&, <, >, ", ').

🔗unescape

fn unescape(s: string): string

Decode HTML entities back into their original characters.