typeName

typeName

Category

Type / Introspection

Arity

Unary — typeName <value>.

typeName <any>

Description

Returns the type name of a value as a lowercase string. Useful for runtime type checking and debugging.

Value type	Returns
Number	"number"
String	"string"
Array	"array"
Code	"code"
Boolean	"boolean"
Nil	"nothing"
HashMap	"hashmap"
Namespace	"namespace"
ScriptHandle	"scripthandle"
Error	"error"
Shared	"shared"

How It Works

Reads the internal type tag from the value's wrapper struct and returns the corresponding string. O(1).

Usage

typeName 42;                   // "number"
typeName "hello";              // "string"
typeName [1, 2, 3];            // "array"
typeName { sleep 1; };         // "code"
typeName true;                 // "boolean"
typeName nil;                  // "nothing"
typeName createHashMap;        // "hashmap"

Type guard

if (typeName _val != "number") then {
    systemChat "Expected a number";
};

Polymorphic dispatch

switch (typeName _input) do {
    case "number": { processNumber(_input); };
    case "string": { processString(_input); };
    case "array":  { processArray(_input); };
    default       { systemChat "Unknown type"; };
};

Validation helper

_assertType = {
    params ["_val", "_expected"];
    if (typeName _val != _expected) then {
        throw f"Type mismatch: expected {_expected}, got {typeName _val}";
    };
};

Thread Safety

ReadOnly — pure query. Safe from any scheduler.

See Also

• isNil — nil check
• isNull — null/resolved check
• str — value to string
• params — typed destructuring