11/6/2020 Dart Programming - Syntax - Tutorialspoint

Dart Programming - Syntax

Syntax defines a set of rules for writing programs. Every language specification defines its own
syntax. A Dart program is composed of −

Variables and Operators

Classes
Functions
Expressions and Programming Constructs
Decision Making and Looping Constructs
Comments
Libraries and Packages
Typedefs
Data structures represented as Collections / Generics

Your First Dart Code

Let us start with the traditional “Hello World” example −

Live Demo
main() {
print("Hello World!");
}

The main() function is a predefined method in Dart. This method acts as the entry point to the
application. A Dart script needs the main() method for execution. print() is a predefined function
that prints the specified string or value to the standard output i.e. the terminal.

The output of the above code will be −

Hello World!

Execute a Dart Program

You can execute a Dart program in two ways −
Via the terminal
Via the WebStorm IDE

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Via the Terminal

To execute a Dart program via the terminal −

Navigate to the path of the current project
Type the following command in the Terminal window

dart file_name.dart

Via the WebStorm IDE

To execute a Dart program via the WebStorm IDE −

Right-click the Dart script file on the IDE. (The file should contain the main() function to
enable execution)

Click on the ‘Run <file_name>’ option. A screenshot of the same is given below −

One can alternatively click the button or use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F10 to execute the Dart
Script.

Dart Command-Line Options

Dart command-line options are used to modify Dart Script execution. Common commandline
options for Dart include the following −

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Sr.No Command-Line Option & Description

1 -c or --c
Enables both assertions and type checks (checked mode).

2 --version
Displays VM version information.

3 --packages <path>
Specifies the path to the package resolution configuration file.

4 -p <path>
Specifies where to find imported libraries. This option cannot be used with --packages.

5 -h or --help
Displays help.

Enabling Checked Mode

Dart programs run in two modes namely −

Checked Mode
Production Mode (Default)
It is recommended to run the Dart VM in checked mode during development and testing, since it
adds warnings and errors to aid development and debugging process. The checked mode enforces
various checks like type-checking etc. To turn on the checked mode, add the -c or –-checked option
before the script-file name while running the script.
However, to ensure performance benefit while running the script, it is recommended to run the
script in the production mode.

Consider the following Test.dart script file −

Live Demo
void main() {
int n = "hello";
print(n);
}

Run the script by entering −

dart Test.dart
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Though there is a type-mismatch the script executes successfully as the checked mode is turned
off. The script will result in the following output −

hello

Now try executing the script with the "- - checked" or the "-c" option −

dart -c Test.dart

Or,

dart - - checked Test.dart

The Dart VM will throw an error stating that there is a type mismatch.

Unhandled exception:
type 'String' is not a subtype of type 'int' of 'n' where
String is from dart:core
int is from dart:core
#0 main (file:///C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/test.dart:3:9)
#1 _startIsolate.<anonymous closure> (dart:isolate-patch/isolate_patch.dart
#2 _RawReceivePortImpl._handleMessage (dart:isolate-patch/isolate_patch.dart

Identifiers in Dart

Identifiers are names given to elements in a program like variables, functions etc. The rules for
identifiers are −
Identifiers can include both, characters and digits. However, the identifier cannot begin with a digit.

Identifiers cannot include special symbols except for underscore (_) or a dollar sign ($).
Identifiers cannot be keywords.

They must be unique.

Identifiers are case-sensitive.

Identifiers cannot contain spaces.

The following tables lists a few examples of valid and invalid identifiers −

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Valid identifiers Invalid identifiers

firstName Var

first_name first name

num1 first-name

$result 1number

Keywords in Dart
Keywords have a special meaning in the context of a language. The following table lists some
keywords in Dart.

abstract 1 continue false new this

as 1 default final null throw

assert deferred 1 finally operator 1 true

async 2 do for part 1 try

async* 2 dynamic 1 get 1 rethrow typedef 1

await 2 else if return var

break enum implements 1 set 1 void

case export 1 import 1 static 1 while

catch external 1 in super with

class extends is switch yield 2

const factory 1 library 1 sync* 2 yield* 2

Whitespace and Line Breaks

Dart ignores spaces, tabs, and newlines that appear in programs. You can use spaces, tabs, and
newlines freely in your program and you are free to format and indent your programs in a neat and
consistent way that makes the code easy to read and understand.

Dart is Case-sensitive

Dart is case-sensitive. This means that Dart differentiates between uppercase and lowercase
characters.

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Statements end with a Semicolon

Each line of instruction is called a statement. Each dart statement must end with a semicolon (;). A
single line can contain multiple statements. However, these statements must be separated by a
semicolon.

Comments in Dart

Comments are a way to improve the readability of a program. Comments can be used to include
additional information about a program like author of the code, hints about a function/ construct etc.
Comments are ignored by the compiler.

Dart supports the following types of comments −

Single-line comments ( // ) − Any text between a "//" and the end of a line is treated as a
comment

Multi-line comments (/* */) − These comments may span multiple lines.

Example

// this is single line comment

/* This is a
Multi-line comment
*/

Object-Oriented Programming in Dart

Dart is an Object-Oriented language. Object Orientation is a software development paradigm that

follows real-world modelling. Object Orientation considers a program as a collection of objects that
communicate with each other via mechanism called methods.
Object − An object is a real-time representation of any entity. As per Grady Brooch, every
object must have three features −

State − described by the attributes of an object.

Behavior − describes how the object will act.

Identity − a unique value that distinguishes an object from a set of similar such
objects.

Class − A class in terms of OOP is a blueprint for creating objects. A class encapsulates
data for the object.
Method − Methods facilitate communication between objects.

Example: Dart and Object Orientation

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Live Demo
class TestClass {
void disp() {
print("Hello World");
}
}
void main() {
TestClass c = new TestClass();
c.disp();
}

The above example defines a class TestClass. The class has a method disp(). The method prints
the string “Hello World” on the terminal. The new keyword creates an object of the class. The object
invokes the method disp().

The code should produce the following output −

Hello World

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