Value Types

Value Types

scaf supports several value types for inputs, expected outputs, and assertions.

Strings

Quoted Strings

Double or single quotes:

name: "Alice"
status: 'active'
message: "Hello, World!"
path: '/usr/local/bin'

Escape Sequences

// In quoted strings
escaped: "Line 1\nLine 2"
tab: "Column1\tColumn2"
quote: "She said \"Hello\""
backslash: "C:\\path\\to\\file"

Escape	Character
\"	Double quote
\'	Single quote
\\	Backslash
\n	Newline
\t	Tab
\r	Carriage return

Raw Strings

Backtick-delimited, no escape processing:

fn Example `
  SELECT * FROM users
  WHERE name = 'Alice'
`

Raw strings preserve all content literally, including newlines and special characters.

Numbers

Integers

count: 42
negative: -17
zero: 0

Floats

price: 19.99
rate: 0.05
negative: -3.14

Alternate Bases

// Hexadecimal
hex: 0xFF
hex2: 0x1a2b3c

// Binary
binary: 0b1010
bits: 0b11110000

// Octal
octal: 0o755
permissions: 0o644

Scientific Notation

large: 1e10
small: 1.5e-5
precise: 6.022e23

Underscores

Underscores improve readability:

million: 1_000_000
binary: 0b1111_0000_1111_0000
hex: 0xFF_FF_FF

Booleans

verified: true
deleted: false

Case-sensitive — True, TRUE, FALSE are invalid.

Null

deletedAt: null
optionalField: null

Use null to assert that a field is null/missing.

Lists

Ordered collections:

// Empty list
empty: []

// Simple values
numbers: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
strings: ["a", "b", "c"]
mixed: [1, "two", true, null]

// Nested lists
matrix: [[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]]

// Trailing comma allowed
items: [
  "first",
  "second",
  "third",
]

List in Assertions

assert {
  (len(items) > 0)
  (items[0] == "first")
  ("admin" in roles)
}

Maps

Key-value objects:

// Empty map
empty: {}

// Simple map
user: {name: "Alice", age: 30}

// Nested maps
config: {
  database: {
    host: "localhost",
    port: 5432
  },
  cache: {
    enabled: true,
    ttl: 3600
  }
}

// Trailing comma allowed
options: {
  key1: "value1",
  key2: "value2",
}

Map Keys

Keys must be valid identifiers (no quotes):

// Valid
data: {name: "Alice", userId: 1}

// Invalid - no quoted keys
data: {"user-name": "Alice"}  // Error!

Map in Assertions

assert {
  (user.name == "Alice")
  (user.profile.theme == "dark")
  (config["timeout"] > 0)
}

Type Coercion

scaf compares values with type awareness:

Expected	Actual	Result
1 (int)	1.0 (float)	Match ✓
"1" (string)	1 (number)	No match ✗
true	1	No match ✗
null	missing field	Match ✓
[]	[]	Match ✓
[1, 2]	[2, 1]	No match ✗ (order matters)

Nested Structures

Complex nested data:

test "complex data" {
  $input: {
    users: [
      {id: 1, name: "Alice", roles: ["admin", "user"]},
      {id: 2, name: "Bob", roles: ["user"]}
    ],
    config: {
      features: {
        beta: true,
        legacy: false
      }
    }
  }

  result.users[0].name: "Alice"
  result.users[0].roles: ["admin", "user"]
  result.config.features.beta: true
}

Database Type Mapping

How database types map to scaf types:

Neo4j/Cypher

Neo4j Type	scaf Type
String	string
Integer	number
Float	number
Boolean	boolean
Null	null
List	list
Map	map
Node	map (properties)
Relationship	map (properties)
Date	string (ISO format)
DateTime	string (ISO format)
Duration	string

SQL (Coming)

SQL Type	scaf Type
VARCHAR, TEXT	string
INT, BIGINT	number
FLOAT, DECIMAL	number
BOOLEAN	boolean
NULL	null
ARRAY	list
JSON, JSONB	map
DATE	string (ISO format)
TIMESTAMP	string (ISO format)