NStack Types

Primitive types

NStack supports the following primitive types

NStack Type	Notes
Integer	A signed integer
Double	A 64-bit floating-point value
Boolean	A true or false value
Text	Unicode text
Json	Text containing with JSON-encoded content

Complex types

More complex types can be built out of primitive ones:

NStack Type	Syntax	Notes
Optional types	T optional	Optional value of type T
Tuples	(A, B, ...)	A tuple must have at least two fields
Structs	{ x: A, y: B, ... }
Arrays:	[T]	Use [Byte] to specify a byte-array, i.e. a Blob
Void	Void	Used to define custom sources and sinks, see Supported Integrations
Unit	()	Signifies an event which contains no data

A user can make use of these types and define their own type in the Workflow Language. Look at Supported Languages to see how they can be used from Python, R, etc. in your own modules.

Sending untyped data

Most types can be built from combinations of primitive and complex types. However, if you find your types are too complex, or change too often, you can use the Json or [Byte] types to send data between modules either as Json or binary blobs. By doing this nstack won’t be able to ensure that the contracts in you workflow are correct and this disables automatically decoding/encoding data.

This is helpful when sending data such as Python pickled objects, when prototyping, or when you are in a pinch. However, we recommend creating proper types and contracts for your modules and workflows when possible.