Strings And Bytes

2026-06-29

Warning

This is the current planned CLEAR stdlib design. Full stdlib implementation and stabilization are not planned until v0.3. Treat these pages as design direction, not as a compatibility promise.

Status: planned, self-host required.

String is UTF-8 text. Byte buffers are byte data. The stdlib should keep that distinction visible even when both are backed by []u8.

Planned String API

API	Status	Notes
`length`	`intrinsic today`	Exact string semantics still need naming clarity.
`bytes`	`intrinsic today`	Byte length.
`codepointCount`	`intrinsic today`	UTF-8 codepoint count.
`byteAt`	`intrinsic today`	Byte-level access.
`charAt`	`intrinsic today`	Codepoint/text access.
`substr`	`intrinsic today`	Slice/copy behavior depends on ownership.
`split`, `splitLines`, `join`	`self-host required`	Compiler text work.
`trim`, `startsWith?`, `endsWith?`, `contains?`, `indexOf`	`intrinsic today`	Search/predicate helpers.
`replace`, `downcase`, `upcase`	`intrinsic today`	Initial versions are byte/ASCII oriented.
`StringBuilder`	`planned`	Repeated concatenation without repeated copies.
`format` / interpolation	`planned`	Explicit allocation and formatting rules.

tokens = source.splitLines()
    |> MAP { _.trim() }
    |> REJECT { _.empty?() };

Decisions

Byte-indexed, codepoint-indexed, and grapheme-aware operation names.
Whether String can hold invalid UTF-8.
Byte buffer conversion rules.
Builder ownership and allocation behavior.

Source: docs/stdlib/strings-and-bytes.md