Hello, World!

The Anatomy of a Zig Program

Every Zig source file begins with imports. Unlike C, there is no preprocessor. Instead, Zig uses a built-in function called @import to bring in other modules and the standard library.

const std = @import("std");

This single line gives you access to the entire standard library through the std namespace. The const keyword means std cannot be reassigned. In Zig, everything is explicit and there are no hidden allocations or control flow.

Think of this as your "first contact" with Zig --- much like the Federation encountering a new species, the key is following the protocol exactly.

The Entry Point

The entry point of a Zig program is the pub fn main function. The pub keyword makes it public, meaning the runtime can find and call it:

pub fn main() void {
    std.debug.print("Hello, World!\n", .{});
}

The return type void means the function returns nothing. If your main function needs to signal errors, you can use !void instead, which we will cover in a later lesson.

Printing Output

Zig does not have a println function like Go or Python. Instead, you use std.debug.print, which takes a format string and a tuple of arguments:

std.debug.print("Hello, {s}!\n", .{"World"});

The .{} syntax creates an anonymous tuple. When you have no format arguments, you pass an empty tuple: .{}.

The \n at the end of the format string adds a newline character. Unlike fmt.Println in Go, std.debug.print does not automatically add a newline, so you must include one yourself.

Format Specifiers

Zig's format strings use curly braces {} as placeholders:

No Hidden Control Flow

One of Zig's core design principles is "no hidden control flow." There are no hidden function calls, no operator overloading, and no implicit type conversions. What you see in the code is exactly what the machine does.

Your Task

Write a program that prints exactly Hello, World! followed by a newline to the output.