The Grammar of Teal

Here is the complete syntax of Teal in extended BNF, based on the Lua 5.4 grammar. Lines starting with + are existing lines from the Lua grammar with additions; lines marked with * are entirely new.

As usual in extended BNF, {A} means 0 or more As, and [A] means an optional A. For a description of the terminals Name, Numeral, and LiteralString, see Section 3.1 of the Lua 5.3 Reference Manual. For operator precedence, see below.

   chunk ::= block

   block ::= {stat} [retstat]

   stat ::=  ‘;’ |
       varlist ‘=’ explist |
       functioncall |
       label |
       ‘break’ |
       ‘goto’ Name |
       ‘do’ block ‘end’ |
       ‘while’ exp ‘do’ block ‘end’ |
       ‘repeat’ block ‘until’ exp |
       ‘if’ exp ‘then’ block {‘elseif’ exp ‘then’ block} [‘else’ block] ‘end’ |
       ‘for’ Name ‘=’ exp ‘,’ exp [‘,’ exp] ‘do’ block ‘end’ |
       ‘for’ namelist ‘in’ explist ‘do’ block ‘end’ |
       ‘function’ funcname funcbody |
+      ‘local’ attnamelist [‘:’ typelist] [‘=’ explist] |
       ‘local’ ‘function’ Name funcbody |
*      ‘local’ ‘record’ Name recordbody |
*      ‘local’ ‘interface’ Name recordbody |
*      ‘local’ ‘enum’ Name enumbody |
*      ‘local’ ‘type’ Name ‘=’ newtype |
*      ‘global’ attnamelist ‘:’ typelist [‘=’ explist] |
*      ‘global’ attnamelist ‘=’ explist |
*      ‘global’ ‘function’ Name funcbody |
*      ‘global’ ‘record’ Name recordbody |
*      ‘global’ ‘interface’ Name recordbody |
*      ‘global’ ‘enum’ Name enumbody |
*      ‘global’ ‘type’ Name [‘=’ newtype]

   attnamelist ::=  Name [attrib] {‘,’ Name [attrib]}

   attrib ::= ‘<’ Name ‘>’

   retstat ::= ‘return’ [explist] [‘;’]

   label ::= ‘::’ Name ‘::’

+  funcname ::= Name {‘.’ Name} ‘:’ Name | Name {‘.’ Name} ‘.’ Name

   varlist ::= var {‘,’ var}

   var ::=  Name | prefixexp ‘[’ exp ‘]’ | prefixexp ‘.’ Name

   namelist ::= Name {‘,’ Name}

   explist ::= exp {‘,’ exp}

   exp ::=  ‘nil’ | ‘false’ | ‘true’ | Numeral | LiteralString | ‘...’ | functiondef |
       prefixexp | tableconstructor | exp binop exp | unop exp |
*      exp ‘as’ type | exp ‘as’ ‘(’ typelist ‘)’ | Name ‘is’ type

   prefixexp ::= var | functioncall | ‘(’ exp ‘)’

   functioncall ::=  prefixexp args | prefixexp ‘:’ Name args

   args ::=  ‘(’ [explist] ‘)’ | tableconstructor | LiteralString

   functiondef ::= ‘function’ funcbody

+  funcbody ::= [typeargs] ‘(’ [parlist] ‘)’ [‘:’ retlist] block ‘end’

+  parlist ::= parnamelist [‘,’ ‘...’ [‘:’ type]] | ‘...’ [‘:’ type]

   tableconstructor ::= ‘{’ [fieldlist] ‘}’

   fieldlist ::= field {fieldsep field} [fieldsep]

   field ::= ‘[’ exp ‘]’ ‘=’ exp |
+      Name [‘:’ type] ‘=’ exp |
       exp

   fieldsep ::= ‘,’ | ‘;’

   binop ::=  ‘+’ | ‘-’ | ‘*’ | ‘/’ | ‘//’ | ‘^’ | ‘%’ |
       ‘&’ | ‘~’ | ‘|’ | ‘>>’ | ‘<<’ | ‘..’ |
       ‘<’ | ‘<=’ | ‘>’ | ‘>=’ | ‘==’ | ‘~=’ |
       ‘and’ | ‘or’

   unop ::= ‘-’ | ‘not’ | ‘#’ | ‘~’

*  type ::= ‘(’ type ‘)’ | basetype {‘|’ basetype}

*  nominal ::= Name {{‘.’ Name }} [typeargs]

*  basetype ::= ‘string’ | ‘boolean’ | ‘nil’ | ‘number’ |
*      ‘{’ type {',' type} ‘}’ | ‘{’ type ‘:’ type ‘}’ | functiontype
*      | nominal

*  typelist ::= type {‘,’ type}

*  retlist ::= ‘(’ [typelist] [‘...’] ‘)’ | typelist [‘...’]

*  typeargs ::= ‘<’ Name {‘,’ Name } ‘>’

*  newtype ::= ‘record’ recordbody | ‘enum’ enumbody | type
*      | ‘require’ ‘(’ LiteralString ‘)’ {‘.’ Name }

*  interfacelist ::= nominal {‘,’ nominal} |
*      ‘{’ type ‘}’ {‘,’ nominal}

*  recordbody ::= [typeargs] [‘is’ interfacelist]
*      [‘where’ exp] {recordentry} ‘end’

*  recordentry ::= ‘userdata’ |
*      ‘type’ Name ‘=’ newtype | [‘metamethod’] recordkey ‘:’ type |
*      ‘record’ Name recordbody | ‘enum’ Name enumbody

*  recordkey ::= Name | ‘[’ LiteralString ‘]’

*  enumbody ::= {LiteralString} ‘end’

*  functiontype ::= ‘function’ [typeargs] ‘(’ partypelist ‘)’ [‘:’ retlist]

*  partypelist ::= partype {‘,’ partype}

*  partype ::= Name [‘?’] ‘:’ type | [‘?’] type

*  parnamelist ::= parname {‘,’ parname}

*  parname ::= Name [‘?’] [‘:’ type]

Operator precedence

Operator precedence in Teal follows the table below, from lower to higher priority:

     or
     and
     is
     <     >     <=    >=    ~=    ==
     |
     ~
     &
     <<    >>
     ..
     +     -
     *     /     //    %
     unary operators (not   #     -     ~)
     ^
     as

As usual, you can use parentheses to change the precedences of an expression. The concatenation (..) and exponentiation (^) operators are right associative. All other binary operators are left associative.