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Searching Examples

AILANG includes 97 working code examples that you can search, explore, and run directly from the CLI. This is especially useful for AI models learning AILANG patterns.

Quick Start​

# List all working examples
ailang examples list

# Search for examples
ailang examples search "pattern matching"

# Show a specific example
ailang examples show adt_option

# List available tags
ailang examples tags

Commands​

ailang examples list​

List all examples with optional filtering.

# List all working examples
ailang examples list

# Filter by tag
ailang examples list --tags recursion

# Include broken examples
ailang examples list --status all

# JSON output
ailang examples list --json

Output:

📚 AILANG Examples (9/14)

✅ hello.ail
   Basic hello world program
   Tags: basic, io

✅ adt_simple.ail
   ADT declaration and constructor pattern matching
   Tags: adt, pattern-matching, m-p3

Search examples by content, description, or tags.

# Search by keyword
ailang examples search "pattern matching"

# Search for specific features
ailang examples search "recursion"
ailang examples search "json"

# Limit results (flags BEFORE query)
ailang examples search --limit 5 "list"

# JSON output for scripting (flags BEFORE query)
ailang examples search --json "fold"

How search scoring works:

Match TypeScoreDescription
Tag match1.0Query matches a tag exactly
Description match0.95Query found in description
Content match0.80Query found in .ail file
Partial match0.60-0.70Some query words found

Example output:

🔍 Search: "pattern matching"
   Found 10 examples

1. adt_option.ail (0.95, description)
   Option type with pattern matching
   Tags: adt, pattern-matching, option, m-p3

2. adt_simple.ail (0.95, description)
   ADT declaration and constructor pattern matching
   Tags: adt, pattern-matching, m-p3

3. patterns.ail (0.90, tag)
   All pattern types: tuples, literals, constructors, nested
   Tags: pattern-matching, tuples, adt, m-p3

ailang examples show​

Display a specific example with metadata and expected output.

# Show example code
ailang examples show adt_option

# Show and run the example
ailang examples show adt_option --run

# Show only expected output
ailang examples show fold_reduce --expected

Output:

📄 adt_option.ail
   Option type with pattern matching
   Tags: adt, pattern-matching, option, m-p3
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-- ADT with Option type and pattern matching
-- Demonstrates pattern matching with both Some and None cases

type Option[a] = Some(a) | None

-- Test Some case
match Some(42) {
  Some(n) => n,
  None => 0
}
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

📤 Expected output:
42

ailang examples tags​

List all available tags and their example counts.

ailang examples tags

Output:

🏷️  Available tags:

  m-p3                      (3 examples)
  pattern-matching          (3 examples)
  adt                       (3 examples)
  arithmetic                (2 examples)
  recursion                 (2 examples)
  io                        (1 examples)
  higher-order              (1 examples)

Use: ailang examples list --tags <tag>

Use Cases​

Finding Patterns for AI Code Generation​

When an AI model needs to write AILANG code, it can:

  1. Search for similar problems:

    ailang examples search "filter list"
    ailang examples search "fold reduce"

  2. View working patterns:

    ailang examples show fold_reduce

  3. Check expected output:

    ailang examples show recursion_fibonacci --expected

Learning by Example​

Browse examples by feature:

# ADT and pattern matching
ailang examples list --tags adt

# Recursion patterns
ailang examples list --tags recursion

# IO and effects
ailang examples list --tags io

Verifying Syntax​

If you're unsure about syntax, find a working example:

# How do I use records?
ailang examples search "records"
ailang examples show records

# How do I use match expressions?
ailang examples search "match"

JSON Output​

All commands support --json for machine consumption:

ailang examples list --json
ailang examples search --json "recursion"

Note: Flags must come BEFORE the query for search commands.

This is useful for:

  • Scripting and automation
  • Integration with other tools
  • AI model context building

Example Manifest​

Examples are tracked in examples/manifest.json which contains:

  • File paths
  • Status (working/broken)
  • Tags for categorization
  • Descriptions
  • Expected output

This manifest is automatically used by the search and list commands.