2. LOLCODE
i
AbouttheTutorial
LOLCODE is an esoteric programming language inspired by the funny things on the
Internet. LOLCODE is designed to test the boundaries of programming language design.
This tutorial provides a basic level understanding of the LOLCODE programming language.
Audience
This tutorial is meant for people who want to explore beyond general boring programming
syntax. Readers of this tutorial can learn the programming language in simple and easy
ways.
This tutorial will also be helpful for all those developers who want to learn the basics of
LOLCODE.
Prerequisites
The tutorial assumes that the readers have a knowhow about programming languages. If
you have worked on any other programming language, it will be easier for you to learn
LOLCODE.
Copyright&Disclaimer
Copyright 2016 by Tutorials Point (I) Pvt. Ltd.
All the content and graphics published in this e-book are the property of Tutorials Point (I)
Pvt. Ltd. The user of this e-book is prohibited to reuse, retain, copy, distribute or republish
any contents or a part of contents of this e-book in any manner without written consent
of the publisher.
We strive to update the contents of our website and tutorials as timely and as precisely as
possible, however, the contents may contain inaccuracies or errors. Tutorials Point (I) Pvt.
Ltd. provides no guarantee regarding the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of our
website or its contents including this tutorial. If you discover any errors on our website or
in this tutorial, please notify us at contact@tutorialspoint.com
3. LOLCODE
ii
TableofContents
About the Tutorial ............................................................................................................................................i
Audience...........................................................................................................................................................i
Prerequisites.....................................................................................................................................................i
Copyright & Disclaimer.....................................................................................................................................i
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................ ii
1. LOLCODE – INTRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENT SETUP ..........................................................................1
Setting Up the Local Environment...................................................................................................................1
Installation on Windows..................................................................................................................................1
Executing Script Online with TutorialsPoint - codingground...........................................................................1
2. LOLCODE – SYNTAX...................................................................................................................................2
Constructs........................................................................................................................................................2
Whitespace......................................................................................................................................................3
Comments .......................................................................................................................................................4
File Creation ....................................................................................................................................................4
3. LOLCODE – VARIABLES..............................................................................................................................5
Scope of Variables ...........................................................................................................................................5
Naming Conventions .......................................................................................................................................5
Declaration and Assignment of Variables........................................................................................................7
4. LOLCODE – TYPES......................................................................................................................................9
Types ...............................................................................................................................................................9
Untyped (NOOB)..............................................................................................................................................9
Booleans (TROOFS)........................................................................................................................................10
Numerical Types (NUMBR)............................................................................................................................11
Strings (YARN)................................................................................................................................................11
BUKKIT...........................................................................................................................................................12
5. LOLCODE – OPERATORS ..........................................................................................................................13
4. LOLCODE
iii
Operators ......................................................................................................................................................13
Comparison ...................................................................................................................................................15
Concatenation of Values ...............................................................................................................................16
Type Casting ..................................................................................................................................................17
6. LOLCODE – INPUT/OUTPUT ....................................................................................................................18
I/O from Terminal..........................................................................................................................................18
7. LOLCODE – STATEMENTS AND FLOW CONTROL......................................................................................20
Expression Statements ..................................................................................................................................20
Assignment Statements.................................................................................................................................20
Conditional Statements.................................................................................................................................20
Case Statements............................................................................................................................................22
8. LOLCODE ─ LOOPS...................................................................................................................................23
9. LOLCODE – Functions..............................................................................................................................25
Definition of a Function.................................................................................................................................25
Returning Value from a Function ..................................................................................................................25
Calling Functions............................................................................................................................................26
10. LOLCODE - EXCEPTION HANDLING ..........................................................................................................28
11. LOLCODE – SOME MORE EXAMPLES .......................................................................................................29
Example 1: Program to Calculate the Power of a Number............................................................................29
Example 2: Program to Make an Array..........................................................................................................30
Example 3: Program to Calculate the Factorial of a Number ........................................................................31
Example 4: Program to Design a Calculator ..................................................................................................31
5. LOLCODE
4
LOLCODE is an esoteric programming language inspired by the funny things on the Internet.
It is designed to test the boundaries of programming language design.
This chapter will make you familiar with setting up the local environment for LOLCODE,
installing it on Windows, and executing its script online at TutorialsPoint – codingground.
SettingUptheLocalEnvironment
The LOLCODE interpreter is written in C Language. It interprets the code written in LOLCODE
language on multiple platforms. The LOLCODE interpreter is known as lci, which stands for
LOLCODE Interpreter.
Please note that LOLCODE officially supports direct installation of interpreter for MAC
operating Systems only. To install LOLCODE in your operating system, you need to follow the
steps given below:
Press Command+Space, and type Terminal and press enter/return key.
Run in Terminal app
$ git clone https://github.com/justinmeza/lci.git
$ cd lci
$ cmake .
$ make && make install
InstallationonWindows
If you need to install LOLCODE on Windows operating system, please take these steps:
First add MinGW and Python to your environment variables path. To do this, right click
on My Computer, choose Properties, then select Advanced system settings.
Select Environment Variables. In this box, select the PATH variable and then click
Edit.
Now, add ";C:MinGWbin;C:Python32" to the end of that path.
Next, open the Command Prompt and navigate to the project directory using the
"cd" command, for example.
Run the script install.py.
ExecutingScriptOnlinewithTutorialsPoint-codingground
1. LOLCODE – INTRODUCTION AND ENVIRONMENT SETUP
6. LOLCODE
5
To execute your scripts easily and swiftly, use the codingground platform provided by
TutorialsPoint. For this, go to the following link to execute your scripts online:
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/execute_lolcode_online.php
7. LOLCODE
6
LOLCODE has a different syntax compared to other programming languages, however, it is
easier to remember. This chapter gives you the basic syntax of LOLCODE.
Constructs
The LOLCODE constructs are slang words. The following table shows the alphabetical list of
constructs implemented so far:
LOLCODE Construct Purpose/ Usage
BTW It starts a single line comment.
DOWN <variable>!!<times> This corresponds to variable = variable - times. Note
that "times" is a wut-only language extension.
GIMMEH <variable> This represents the input statement.
GTFO This is similar to break in other languages and
provides a way to break out of a loop.
HAI This corresponds to main () function in other
languages. It is the program entry point in LOLCODE.
HEREZ <label> This is another wut-only language extension and
declares a label for use with SHOO
I HAS A <type> <variable> This declares a variable of said type.
There are three built-in types in LOLCODE:
NUMBAH (int)
DECINUMBAH (double)
WORDZ (std::string)
Note that types are a wut-only language extension.
IM IN YR LOOP This starts an infinite loop. The only way to exit the
loop is using GTFO. Corresponds to for(;;) in other
languages
IZ <expr1> <operator>
<expr2>?: Conditional
structure
This is similar to if operator in other languages.
Operator is one of: BIGGER THAN, SMALLER THAN,
SAEM AS. Note that the ? at the end is optional.
KTHX It ends a block. Corresponds to }
KTHXBAI This ends a program
NOWAI This corresponds to else
PURR <expr> This prints argument on screen, followed by a newline.
It is a wut-only language extension.
RELSE This corresponds to else (if)
SHOO This is another wut-only language extension, that
corresponds to goto (the horror!)
UP <variable>!!<times> This corresponds to variables = variable + times. Here
"times" is a wut-only language extension.
2. LOLCODE – SYNTAX
8. LOLCODE
7
VISIBLE <expr> This prints the argument on screen. Note that this does
not print a newline.
YARLY This denotes the start of the "true" conditional block
Some examples of slang terms in LOLCODE are:
HAI is hi
KTHXBYE is okay, thanks, bye
BTW is by the way
OBTW is oh, by the way
TLDR is too long; didn't read
Whitespace
In most programming languages, keywords or tokens may not have spaces between them.
However, in some languages, spaces are used in tokens to differentiate them.
Comma
The comma behaves like a newline keyword in most languages, for example, n in Java and
C. You can write many commands in a single line in LOLCODE, provided that you separate
them using a comma (,).
Three Periods (…)
The three periods (…) enables you to combine multiple lines of code into a single line or a
single command by including (...) at the end of the line. This makes the compiler to treat the
content of the next line as the content of previous line only. Infinite lines of code can be
written together as a single command, as long as each line is ended with three periods.
A comment is terminated by a newline. Please note that the line continuation (...) and (,)
after the comment (BTW) are ignored by the lci.
Comments
Single line comments are written followed by the BTW keyword. They may occur anywhere
inside a program body: it can be at the first line of program, in between the program, in
between some line, or at the end of a program.
All of these are valid single line comments:
I HAS A VAL ITZ 19 BTW VAL = 19
I HAS A VAL ITZ 19, BTW VAL = 19
9. LOLCODE
8
I HAS A VAL ITZ 14
BTW VAR = 14
In LOLCODE, multiple line comments are written followed by OBTW and they are ended
with TLDR.
This is a valid multi-line comment:
I HAS A VAL ITZ 51
OBTW this is a comment
No it’s a two line comment
Oops no.. it has many lines here
TLDR
FileCreation
A LOLCODE program begins with HAI keyword and it should end with KTHXBYE. As LOLCODE
uses shorthand language HAI basically stands for Hi and KTHXBYE can be remembered as
“Ok, thanks, bye ”.
Example
HAI 1.2
I HAS A NAME
VISIBLE "NAME::"!
GIMMEH NAME
VISIBLE "tutorialsPoint " NAME "!"
KTHXBYE
10. LOLCODE
9
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