CSC447

Concepts of Programming Languages

Dynamic/Static Types

Instructor: James Riely

Types

• Types define offsets

  
  struct Node { int head; struct Node* tail; };
  struct Node* getNext (struct Node* x) {
    return x->tail;  
  }
                

• Types determine valid operations

  
  class Main () {
    public static void main (String[] args) {
      System.out.println( 1 - 2 );
      System.out.println( "dog" - "cat" );
    }
  }
                

Type enforcement

• Statically, track types with compiler
  • Compile time
  • Early
• Dynamically, store type with object
  • Run time
  • Late

Types in C

• C does not enforce types. Why have them?
• Only to compute offsets

struct Node { int head; struct Node* tail; };
struct Node* getNext (struct Node* x) {
  return x->tail;
}
          

Example: Lox / Dynamic

• Dynamic type checking detects a failure
• How do we know this is dynamic?
• Type checker invoked before execution starts?

lox11> print 5 - "hello";
Operands must be numbers.
          

Example: Lox / Dynamic

• Defer computation to function body
• Failure is when f runs
• Conclusion: no type checking before execution

lox11> fun f () { print 5 - "hello"; }
lox11> f();
Operands must be numbers.
          

Java is Static

• javac rejects code with (5 - "hello")

$ javac Typing01.java
Typing01.java:5: error: bad operand types for binary operator '-'
    System.out.println ("Result = " + (a - b));
                                         ^
  first type:  int
  second type: String
          

class Typing01 {
  public static void main (String[] args) {
    int a = 5;
    String b = "hello";
    System.out.println ("Result = " + (a - b));
  }
}
          

Java is Dynamic

• We can make the error dynamic by casting

$ java Typing01
ClassCastException: class String cannot be cast to class Integer
	at Typing01.main(Typing01.java:5)
          

class Typing01 {
  public static void main (String[] args) {
    int a = 5;
    String b = "hello";
    System.out.println ("Result = " + (a - (int)(Object)b));
  }
}
          

Variables in Static Languages

• In static languages, variables also have types

$ javac Typing06.java 
Typing06.java:4: error: incompatible types: String cannot be converted to int
    a = "hello";
        ^
          

class Typing06 {
  public static void main (String[] args) {
    int a = 5;
    a = "hello";
  }
}
          

Static to Dynamic

• We can convert any static error into a dynamic one

$ java Typing06      
ClassCastException: class String cannot be cast to class Integer
	at Typing06.main(Typing06.java:4)
          

class Typing06 {
  public static void main (String[] args) {
    int a = 5;
    a = (int)(Object)"hello";
  }
}
          

Java var

• Java infers the most precise type possible for a var

$ javac Typing06.java
Typing06.java:4: error: incompatible types: String cannot be converted to int
    a = "hello";
        ^
          

class Typing06 {
  public static void main (String[] args) {
    var a = 5;
    a = "hello";
  }
}
          

Variables in Dynamic Languages

• Variables do not have types in dynamic languages
• Only values have types.

lox11> fun main () { var a = 5; a = "hello"; print a; }
lox11> main ();
"hello"
          

Static Type Checking

• Static types are conservative

  
  int f (int i, String s) {
    return true ? i : s;
  }
                

• Static types may use type inference

  
  var x = 1;
                

• Static types may be separate from the program, as in Flow

Tradeoffs

• Dynamic:
  • flexible, conceptually simpler
  • faster compilation
  • easier runtime code generation/modification

Tradeoffs

• Static:
  • compile-time detection of errors, fewer unit tests
  • documentation
  • smaller/faster runtime (fewer dynamic checks, more optimization)
  • advanced idioms:
    • dependency injection in typescript or angular
    • implicits in Scala, typeclasses in Haskell
    • borrow checking and data-race freedom in Rust
    • proofs of correctness in Coq and Agda