Keyword Reference

Keywords are reserved words that have a special meaning in XE. They cannot be used as variable names or function names.

All Reserved Keywords

Keyword	Category	Purpose
fun	Declarations	Define a new function
function	Declarations	Alias for fun (legacy support)
if	Control Flow	Start a conditional block
elif	Control Flow	Add a conditional branch to an if statement
else	Control Flow	Fallback branch for an if statement
while	Loops	Start a conditional loop
for	Loops	Iterate over a list or text
in	Loops	Used in the for loop syntax
repeat	Loops	Start a fixed-count loop
times	Loops	Used in the repeat loop syntax
break	Loops	Exit the current loop immediately
continue	Loops	Skip to the next iteration of the loop
and	Logic	Logical AND operator
or	Logic	Logical OR operator
not	Logic	Logical NOT operator
true	Literals	Boolean true value
false	Literals	Boolean false value
return	Functions	Return a value from a function
import	Modules	Import an entire module
from	Modules	Import specific names from a module

Details by Category

Declarations

• fun: The primary keyword for defining functions. Example: fun add(a, b):.
• function: A legacy alias for fun.

Control Flow

• if, elif, else: Used to build decision logic. XE requires a colon : after the condition and an indented block for the body.

Loops

• while: Repeats a block as long as a condition is true.
• for ... in ...: Iterates through every element in a list or every character in a text value.
• repeat ... times: A high-level loop for repeating an action a specific number of times.
• break: Stops the execution of the innermost loop.
• continue: Skips the current iteration and goes to the next check/value in the loop.

Logical Operators

• and: Returns true if both operands are true.
• or: Returns true if at least one operand is true.
• not: Inverts a boolean value.

Module System

• import: Used to load another .xe file as a module.
• from: Used to pull specific functions out of a module into the current namespace.

Reserved Word Rule

If you try to use a keyword as a name, XE will report a syntax error during the parsing phase.

# This will fail
if = 10

Error: expected expression at line 2, column 4