Zig University

Zig Programming Examples

This repository contains a collection of examples demonstrating various features and capabilities of the Zig programming language (version 0.14.0).

Overview

These examples showcase Zig's powerful features, from basic memory management to advanced compile-time metaprogramming. Each example is self-contained and comes with explanatory comments.

Prerequisites

• Zig 0.14.0 or compatible version
• Basic familiarity with programming concepts

Examples

1. Memory Allocators (01_memory_allocators.zig)

Demonstrates Zig's various memory allocation strategies:

• General Purpose Allocator
• Arena Allocator
• Fixed Buffer Allocator
• Page Allocator

zig run 01_memory_allocators.zig

2. Data Structures (02_data_structures.zig)

Showcases common data structures in Zig's standard library:

• ArrayList
• StringHashMap
• AutoHashMap
• BufSet
• SinglyLinkedList

zig run 02_data_structures.zig

3. String Formatting (03_string_formatting.zig)

Explores string manipulation and formatting capabilities:

• String concatenation
• Formatting with placeholders
• Parsing strings

zig run 03_string_formatting.zig

4. File I/O (04_file_io.zig)

Demonstrates file operations in Zig:

• Reading and writing files
• Directory operations
• Path manipulation

zig run 04_file_io.zig

5. Error Handling (05_error_handling.zig)

Showcases Zig's error handling mechanisms:

• Error sets
• Try/catch
• Error unions
• Error return tracing

zig run 05_error_handling.zig

6. Testing (06_testing.zig)

Demonstrates Zig's built-in testing framework:

• Unit tests
• Test expectation functions
• Test setup and teardown

zig run 06_testing.zig
# or
zig test 06_testing.zig

7. Threading (07_threading.zig)

Shows threading and concurrency in Zig:

• Thread creation
• Mutexes
• Condition variables
• Thread pools

zig run 07_threading.zig

8. JSON Processing (08_json.zig)

Demonstrates JSON parsing and generation:

• Parsing JSON strings
• Generating JSON from data
• Working with JSON objects and arrays

zig run 08_json.zig

9. Networking (09_networking.zig)

Implements basic networking functionality:

• TCP server and client
• Socket programming
• Asynchronous I/O

zig run 09_networking.zig

10. Compile-Time Features (10_comptime_features.zig)

Explores Zig's powerful compile-time metaprogramming:

• Compile-time function execution
• Type reflection
• Generic data structures
• Type-based specialization

zig run 10_comptime_features.zig

11. Cryptography (11_cryptography.zig)

Shows cryptographic capabilities:

• Hash functions (SHA-256, SHA-512, Blake2, Blake3)
• HMAC for message authentication
• Password hashing
• Symmetric encryption
• Secure random number generation

zig run 11_cryptography.zig

12. Build System (12_build_system/)

Demonstrates Zig's build system for larger projects:

• Multi-file projects
• Dependencies
• Custom build steps
• Testing integration

cd 12_build_system
zig build
zig build run
zig build test

13. Foreign Function Interface (FFI) (13_ffi/)

Shows Zig's seamless interoperability with C:

• Calling C functions from Zig
• Working with C structs
• Memory management across the FFI boundary
• String conversion between C and Zig

cd 13_ffi
zig build run

Learning Resources

Two key documentation files are included:

• overview.md - A comprehensive overview of Zig's standard library
• additional.md - Additional reference material for the Zig language

Key Features of Zig

• Manual memory management with advanced allocator design
• Compile-time metaprogramming
• Error handling as a first-class language feature
• C ABI compatibility and seamless FFI
• Performance and safety focused design
• Cross-compilation capabilities
• Powerful build system

Contribution

Feel free to add more examples or improve existing ones!

License

This project is available under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.