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@parameter

You can add the @parameter decorator on an if statement or on a nested function to run that code at compile time.

Parametric if statement​

You can add @parameter to any if condition that's based on a valid parameter expression (it's an expression that evaluates at compile time). This ensures that only the live branch of the if statement is compiled into the program, which can reduce your final binary size. For example:

@parameter
if True:
    print("this will be included in the binary")
else:
    print("this will be eliminated at compile time")
@parameter
if True:
    print("this will be included in the binary")
else:
    print("this will be eliminated at compile time")
this will be included in the binary
this will be included in the binary

Parametric for statement​

You can add the @parameter decorator to an for loop to create a loop that's evaluated at compile time. The loop sequence and induction values must be a valid parameter expressions (that is, an expressions that evaluate at compile time).

This has the effect of "unrolling" the loop.

fn parameter_for[max: Int]():
    @parameter
    for i in range(max)
        @parameter
        if i == 10:
            print("found 10!")
fn parameter_for[max: Int]():
    @parameter
    for i in range(max)
        @parameter
        if i == 10:
            print("found 10!")

Currently, @parameter for requires the sequence's __iter__ method to return a _StridedRangeIterator, meaning the induction variables must be Int. The intention is to lift these restrictions in the future.

Compared to unroll()​

The Mojo standard library also includes a function called unroll() that unrolls a given function that you want to call repeatedly, but has some important differences when compared to the parametric for statement:

  • The @parameter decorator operates on for loop expressions. The unroll() function is a higher-order function that takes a parametric closure (see below) and executes it a specified number of times.

  • The parametric for statement is more versatile, since you can do anything you can do in a for statement: including using arbitrary sequences, early-exiting from the loop, skipping iterations with continue and so on.

    By contrast, unroll() simply takes a function and a count, and executes the function the specified number of times.

Both unroll() and @parameter for unroll at the beginning of compilation, which might explode the size of the program that still needs to be compiled, depending on the amount of code that's unrolled.

Parametric closure​

You can add @parameter on a nested function to create a “parametric” capturing closure. This means you can create a closure function that captures values from the outer scope (regardless of whether they are variables or parameters), and then use that closure as a parameter. For example:

fn use_closure[func: fn(Int) capturing [_] -> Int](num: Int) -> Int:
    return func(num)

fn create_closure():
    var x = 1

    @parameter
    fn add(i: Int) -> Int:
        return x + i

    var y = use_closure[add](2)
    print(y)

create_closure()
fn use_closure[func: fn(Int) capturing [_] -> Int](num: Int) -> Int:
    return func(num)

fn create_closure():
    var x = 1

    @parameter
    fn add(i: Int) -> Int:
        return x + i

    var y = use_closure[add](2)
    print(y)

create_closure()
3
3

Without the @parameter decorator, you'll get a compiler error that says you "cannot use a dynamic value in call parameter"—referring to the use_closure[add](2) call—because the add() closure would still be dynamic.

Note the [_] in the function type:

fn use_closure[func: fn(Int) capturing [_] -> Int](num: Int) -> Int:
fn use_closure[func: fn(Int) capturing [_] -> Int](num: Int) -> Int:

This origin specifier represents the set of origins for the values captured by the parametric closure. This allows the compiler to correctly extend the lifetimes of those values. For more information on lifetimes and origins, see Lifetimes, origins and references.

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