Part 11. Zig Builtins

Zig has special built-in functions whose names start with @.

16 items

Section	Title
1	Understanding `@` Builtins
2	`@import`
3	`@sizeOf`
4	`@alignOf`
5	`@Type`
6	`@typeInfo`
7	`@ptrCast`
8	`@bitCast`
9	`@memcpy`
10	`@intCast`
11	`@truncate`
12	`@floatCast`
13	`@panic`
14	`@compileError`
15	`@embedFile`
16	Important Builtins in Zig 1.16

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Understanding `@` Builtins

Zig has special built-in functions whose names start with @.

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`@import`

One of the first Zig builtins you will learn is @import.

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`@sizeOf`

@sizeOf asks the Zig compiler how many bytes a type needs in memory.

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`@alignOf`

@alignOf asks the Zig compiler for the required memory alignment of a type.

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`@Type`

@Type builds a type from compile-time type information.

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`@typeInfo`

@typeInfo asks the compiler for structured information about a type.

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`@ptrCast`

@ptrCast converts one pointer type into another pointer type.

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`@bitCast`

@bitCast reinterprets the bits of one value as another type.

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`@memcpy`

@memcpy copies bytes from one memory region to another.

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`@intCast`

@intCast converts one integer value to another integer type.

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`@truncate`

@truncate converts an integer to a smaller integer type by keeping only the low bits.

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`@floatCast`

@floatCast converts one floating-point value to another floating-point type.

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`@panic`

@panic stops the program immediately with a message.

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`@compileError`

@compileError stops compilation with a custom error message.

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`@embedFile`

@embedFile reads a file at compile time and embeds its bytes into the final program.

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Important Builtins in Zig 1.16

This chapter covered the builtins you will see most often as a beginner.