# Expressions

## Grouping

Given any expression, that same expression enclosed in parentheses is an expression of the same type. For instance, (7) is an Int expression, ([1;2;3]) is an expression of type array of Ints, and ((1,2)) is an expression with type (Int, Int).

The equivalence between simple values and single-element tuples described in the type model removes the ambiguity between (6) as a group and (6) as a single-element tuple.

## Symbols

The name of a symbol bound or assigned to a value of type 'T is an expression of type 'T. For instance, if the symbol count is bound to the integer value 5, then count is an integer expression.

## Numeric Expressions

Numeric expressions are expressions of type Int or Double. That is, they are either integer or floating-point numbers.

Int literals in Q# are identical to integer literals in C#, except that no trailing "l" or "L" is required (or allowed). Hexadecimal integers are supported with a "0x" prefix.

Double literals in Q# are identical to double literals in C#, except that no trailing "d" or "D" is required (or allowed).

Given an array expression of any element type, an Int expression may be formed using the Length built-in function, with the array expression enclosed in parentheses, ( and ). For instance, if a is bound to an array, then Length(a) is an integer expression. If b is an array of arrays of integers, Int[][], then Length(b) is the number of sub-arrays in b, and Length(b[1]) is the number of integers in the second sub-array in b.

Given two numeric expressions, the binary operators +, -, *, and / may be used to form a new numeric expression. The type of the new expression will be Double if both of the constituent expressions are Double, or will be an Int expression if both are integers.

Given two integer expressions, a new integer expression may be formed using the % (modulus), ^ (power), &&& (bitwise AND), ||| (bitwise OR), ^^^ (bitwise XOR), <<< (arithmetic left shift), or >>> (arithmetic right shift) operations. The second parameter to either shift operation must be greater than or equal to zero. The behavior for shifting negative numbers is undefined.

Integer division and integer modulus follow the same behavior for negative numbers as C#. That is, a % b will always have the same sign as a, and b * (a / b) + a % b will always equal a. For example:

A B A / B A % B
5 2 2 1
5 -2 -2 1
-5 2 -2 -1
-5 -2 2 -1

Given any numeric expression, a new expression may be formed using the - unary operator. The new expression will be the same type as the constituent expression.

Given any integer expression, a new integer expression may be formed using the ~~~ (bitwise complement) unary operator.

## Qubit Expressions

The only qubit expressions are symbols that are bound to qubit values or array elements of qubit arrays. There are no qubit literals.

## Pauli Expressions

The four Pauli values, PauliI, PauliX, PauliY, and PauliZ, are all valid Pauli expressions.

Other than that, the only Pauli expressions are symbols that are bound to Pauli values or array elements of Pauli arrays.

## Result Expressions

The two Result values, One and Zero, are valid Result expressions.

Other than that, the only Result expressions are symbols that are bound to Result values or array elements of Result arrays. In particular, note that One is not the same as the integer 1, and there is no direct conversion between them. The same is true for Zero and 0.

## Range Expressions

Given any three Int expressions start, step, and stop, start .. step .. stop is a range expression whose first element is start, second element is start+step, third element is start+step+step, etc., until stop is passed. A range may be empty if, for instance, step is positive and stop < start. The last element of the range will be stop if the difference between start and stop is an integral multiple of step; that is, the range is inclusive at both ends.

Given any two Int expressions start and stop, start .. stop is a range expression that is equal to start .. 1 .. stop. Note that the implied step is +1 even if stop is less than start; in such a case, the range is empty.

Some example ranges are:

• 1..3 is the range 1, 2, 3.
• 2..2..5 is the range 2, 4.
• 2..2..6 is the range 2, 4, 6.
• 6..-2..2 is the range 6, 4, 2.
• 2..1 is the empty range.
• 2..6..7 is the range 2.
• 2..2..1 is the empty range.
• 1..-1..2 is the empty range.

## Callable Expressions

A callable literal is the name of an operation or function defined in the compilation scope. For instance, X is an operation literal that refers to the standard library X operation, and Message is a function literal that refers to the standard library Message function.

If an operation supports the Adjoint functor, then (Adjoint op) is an operation expression. Similarly, if the operation supports the Controlled functor, then (Controlled op) is an operation expression. The types of these expressions are specified above in Functors.

## Callable Invocation Expressions

Given a callable (operation or function) expression and a tuple expression of the input type of the callable's signature, an invocation expression may be formed by appending the tuple expression to the callable expression. The type of the invocation expression is the output type of the callable's signature.

For example, if Op is an operation with signature ((Int, Qubit) => Double), Op(3, qubit1) is an expression of type Double. Similarly, if Sin is a function with signature (Double -> Double), Sin(0.1) is an expression of type Double.

Invoking the result of a callable-valued expression requires an extra pair of parentheses around the callable expression. Thus, to invoke the adjoint of Op from the previous paragraph, the correct syntax is:

(Adjoint(Op))(3, qubit1)


### Partial Application

Given a callable expression, a new callable may be created by providing a subset of the arguments to the callable. This is called partial application.

In Q#, a partially applied callable is expressed by writing a normal invocation expression, but using an underscore, _, for the unspecified arguments. The resulting callable has the same result type as the base callable, and the same variants for operations. The input type of the partial application is simply the original type with the specified arguments removed.

If a mutable variable is passed as a specified argument when creating a partial application, the current value of the variable is used. Changing the value of the variable afterward will not impact the partial application.

For example, if Op has type ((Int, ((Qubit,Qubit), Double)) => ():Adjoint):

• Op(5,(_,_)) has type (((Qubit,Qubit), Double) => ():Adjoint), and so has Op(5,_).
• Op(_,(_,1.0)) has type ((Int, (Qubit,Qubit)) => ():Adjoint).
• Op(_,((q1,q2),_)) has type ((Int,Double) => ():Adjoint). Note that we have applied singleton tuple equivalence here.

### Recursion

Q# callables are allowed to be directly or indirectly recursive. That is, an operation or function may call itself, or it may call another callable that directly or indirectly calls the callable operation.

• The use of recursion in operations is likely to interfere with certain optimizations. This may have a substantial impact on the execution time of the algorithm. The compiler should generate a warning if optimizations are prevented.
• When executing on an actual quantum device, stack space may be limited, and so deep recursion may lead to a runtime error. In particular, the Q# compiler and runtime do not identify and optimize tail recursion.

## Tuple Expressions

A tuple literal is a sequence of element expressions of the appropriate type, separated by commas, enclosed by ( and ). For instance, (1, One) is an (Int, Result) expression.

Other than literals, the only tuple expressions are symbols that are bound to tuple values, array elements of tuple arrays, and callable invocations that return tuples.

## User-Defined Type Expressions

A literal of a user-defined type consists of the type name followed by a tuple literal of the type’s base tuple type. For instance, if IntPair is a user-defined type based on (Int, Int), then IntPair(2,3) would be a valid literal of that type.

Other than literals, the only expressions of a user-defined type are symbols that are bound to values of that type, array elements of arrays of that type, and callable invocations that return that type.

## Array Expressions

An array literal is a sequence of one or more element expressions, separated by semi-colons, enclosed by [ and ]. All elements must be compatible with the same type. If the common element type is an operation or function type, all of the elements must have the same signature and - in case of operations - the same supported functors.

Empty array literals, [], are not allowed. Instead using new ★[0], where ★ is as placeholder for a suitable type, allows to create the desired array of length zero.

Given two arrays of the same type, the binary + operator may be used to form a new array that is the concatenation of the two arrays. For instance, [1;2;3] + [4;5;6] is [1;2;3;4;5;6].

### Array Creation

Given a type and an Int expression, the new operator may be used to allocate a new array of the given size. For instance, new Int[i+1] would allocate a new Int array with i+1 elements.

The elements of a new array are initialized to a type-dependent default value. In most cases this is some variation of zero.

For qubits and callables, which are references to entities, there is no reasonable default value. Thus, for these types, the default is an invalid reference that cannot be used without causing a runtime error. This is similar to a null reference in languages such as C# or Java. Arrays containing qubits or callables must be filled in using set statements before their elements may be safely used. Array elements can only be set if the array is declared as being mutable, e.g. mutable array = new Int[5]. Arrays passed as arguments are immutable.

The default values for each type are:

Type Default
Int 0
Double 0.0
Bool false
String ""
Qubit invalid qubit
Pauli PauliI
Result Zero
Range The empty range, 1..1..0
Callable invalid callable
Array['T] 'T[0]

Tuple types are initialized element-by-element.

Array creation is primarily of use initializing mutable arrays, on the right-hand side of a [mutable]microsoft.quantum.qsharp-ref.type-model.statements#mutable-symbols) statement.

### Array Slices

Given an array expression and a Range expression, a new expression may be formed using the [ and ] array slice operator. The new expression will be the same type as the array and will contain the array items indexed by the elements of the Range, in the order defined by the Range. For instance, if a is bound to an array of Doubles, then a[3..-1..0] is a Double[] expression that contains the first four elements of a but in the reverse order as they appear in a.

If the Range is empty, then the resulting array slice will be zero length.

If the array expression is not a simple identifier, it must be enclosed it parentheses in order to slice. For instance, if a and b are both arrays of Ints, a slice from the concatenation would be expressed as:

(a+b)[1..2..7]


All arrays in Q# are zero-based. That is, the first element of an array a is always a[0].

## Array Element Expressions

Given an array expression and an Int expression, a new expression may be formed using the [ and ] array element operator. The new expression will be the same type as the element type of the array. For instance, if a is bound to an array of Doubles, then a[4] is a Double expression.

If the array expression is not a simple identifier, it must be enclosed it parentheses in order to select an element. For instance, if a and b are both arrays of Ints, an element from the concatenation would be expressed as:

(a+b)[13]


All arrays in Q# are zero-based. That is, the first element of an array a is always a[0].

## Boolean Expressions

The two Bool literal values are true and false.

Given any two expressions compatible with the same primitive type, the == and != binary operators may be used to construct a Bool expression. The expression will be true if the two expressions are (resp. are not) equal. For both magnitude and equality comparision, values of user-defined types are cast to their base type before comparison.

Equality comparison for Qubit values is identity equality; that is, whether the two expressions identify the same qubit. The state of the two qubits are not compared, accessed, measured, or modified by this comparison.

Equality comparison for Double values may be misleading due to rounding effects. For instance, 49.0 * (1.0/49.0) != 1.0.

Given any two numeric expressions, the binary operators >, <, >=, and <= may be used to construct a new Boolean expression that is true if the first expression is respectively greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, or less than or equal to the second expression.

Given any two Boolean expressions, the && and || binary operators may be used to construct a new Boolean expression that is true if both of (resp. either or both of) the two expressions are true.

Given any Boolean expression, the ! unary operator may be used to construct a new Boolean expression that is true if the constituent expression is false.

## Operator Precedence

All binary operators are right-associative, except for ^.

Brackets, [ and ], for array slicing and indexing, bind before any operator. Parentheses for operation and function invocation also bind before any operator but after array indexing.

Operators in order of precedence, from highest to lowest:

Operator Arity Description Operand Types
-, ~~~,! Unary Numeric negative, bitwise complement, logical negation (NOT) Int or Double for -, Int for ~~~, Bool for !
^ Binary Integer power Int
/, *, % Binary Division, multiplication, integer modulus Int or Double for / and *, Int for %
+, - Binary Addition or string and array concatenation, subtraction Int or Double, additionally String or any array type for +
<<<, >>> Binary Left shift, right shift Int
<, <=, >, >= Binary Less-than, less-than-or-equal, greater-than, greater-than-or-equal comparisons Int or Double
==, != Binary equal, not-equal comparisons any primitive type
&&& Binary Bitwise AND Int
^^^ Binary Bitwise XOR Int
||| Binary Bitwise OR Int
&& Binary Logical AND Bool
|| Binary Logical OR Bool

## String Interpolations

Q# allows strings to be used in the fail statement and the Log standard function. The Q# syntax for string interpolations is a subset of the C# 7.0 syntax; Q# does not support verbatim (multi-line) interpolated strings. See Interpolated Strings for the C# syntax.