Strings

A Whim string is a sequence of bytes. It may contain text, encoded data, or arbitrary binary data.

Single quotes

Single quotes do not interpolate variables. They recognize \\ and \'. Other backslash pairs stay as written:

$name = 'Ada';
assert!('Hello, $name' == 'Hello, $name');
assert!('it\'s' == "it's");
assert!('\n' == "\\n");

Use single quotes when the value needs no interpolation or control-byte escape.

Double quotes

Double quotes support escapes and interpolation:

$name = 'Ada';
$next = 41;

assert!("Hello, $name" == 'Hello, Ada');
assert!("answer: {$next + 1}" == 'answer: 42');

The short form accepts one variable. Braces accept any expression. An interpolated value must be a string, int, or float.

Escape $, {, or } when you need the byte itself:

assert!("\$name \{value\}" == '$name {value}');

Escape sequences

Double-quoted strings support these escapes:

Escape	Byte or text
`\\`	backslash
`\"`	double quote
`\$`, `\{`, `\}`	interpolation marker as text
`\n`, `\r`, `\t`	line feed, carriage return, tab
`\v`, `\f`, `\e`	vertical tab, form feed, escape
`\xH`, `\xHH`	one byte from one or two hex digits
`\O`, `\OO`, `\OOO`	one byte from up to three octal digits
`\u{H...}`	one Unicode scalar encoded as UTF-8

An octal escape must fit in one byte. A Unicode escape cannot name a surrogate or a value above 10FFFF.

An unknown escape keeps its backslash:

assert!("\x" == '\x');

Length and indexing

length! counts bytes. Indexing returns a one-byte string:

$text = 'abc';
assert!(length!($text) == 3);
assert!($text[1] == 'b');

An index must be an in-range integer. An invalid index throws OutOfBoundsError. Strings are immutable, so indexed assignment fails.

Concatenation

. joins strings, ints, and floats:

assert!('count=' . 3 == 'count=3');
assert!('value=' . 1.5 == 'value=1.5');

It does not convert bool, null, arrays, objects, or callables. Use an explicit conversion for those values.

Text and bytes

Whim\Str works on bytes. Its case functions handle ASCII. Use Whim\Encoding\UTF8 to check or repair UTF-8, and use Whim\Binary for fixed binary formats.

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