Indentation in Flint

Flint enforces strict indentation rules to ensure clean and readable code. Only hard tabs (\t) are allowed for indentation. Each tab indicates a new level of nesting.

Let’s see why proper indentation is crucial:

def main():
print("This is not indented correctly.");

When you run the above code, you’ll see an error:

Error: Indentation expected for block inside main().

This happens because Flint expects all code inside main to be indented. Here’s the correct way to write it:

def main():
	print("This is correctly indented."); // Properly indented with a hard tab

Use comments to explain your code and highlight mistakes. For example:

def main():
// The following line is not indented and will cause an error:
print("Oops, this won't work!");

// Uncomment the next line to fix the indentation:
	// print("Now it works!");

Proper indentation is not just a stylistic choice in Flint—it’s a fundamental part of the syntax. By using only hard tabs, Flint ensures consistency across projects.

Now you’re ready to move on to variables and types, where we’ll dive deeper into how to store and manipulate data!