Hello Elixir

Learn how to make your first Hello World program in Elixir.

Using IEx

Open your terminal and start IEx -

$ iex
iex(1)>

Write the following into your IEx -

iex(1)> IO.puts("Hello World")

Output -

Hello World
:ok

Using Script File

Create a file hello_world.exs and enter the following -

IO.puts("Hello World")

Elixir files can be created using two extension exs or ex, exs is normally used for creating scripts and ex for creating compiled files.

Here we will be working with script file, later we will explore working with ex extensions for compiled files.

To run the script, open the terminal and navigate to the folder that contains the hello_world.exs file and run the following -

$ elixir hello_world.exs

Output

$ elixir hello_world.exs
"Hello World"

That's it! You just created your file Elixir program.

IO

Wondering what is this IO ? It is simply a built-in module provided by Elixir, it is automatically imported and is made available to use, we will cover more about modules later. In addition to IO there are a lot of modules made available, be sure to check out the official documentation for a complete list.

puts is simply a function defined in IO module, we invoke the function by passing a argument IO.puts("Hello World") , this in turn prints "Hello World" to our terminal.

Elixir is pretty flexible about its syntax, you can omit the brackets and it will work just the same -

iex(1)> IO.puts "Hello World"
Hello World
:ok

The choice of using brackets or not is upto you, personally I like using brackets, it makes the code easier to read, but it's just my personal preference.

Exercises

1) Create and run a script file that will print the following. Make sure to make a new file with exs extension and run it from your terminal.

"Elixir Rocks!!!"

2) And one more script that will print -

"Hi, my name is Octallium and I am learning Elixir"

3) What is the result of -

iex(1)> IO.puts 7 + 6

4) And

iex(1)> IO.puts "7 + 6"

5) For some fun try running this -

iex(1)> IO.puts "Hello " <> "World"

{++Don't skip the exercises if you really want to learn Elixir! However simple they may seem, its important to try them out yourself!++}

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