import ballerina/io;

type Employee record {
    readonly string name;
    int salary;
};

// Creates a `table` with members of the `Employee` type, where each
// member is uniquely identified using their `name` field.
table<Employee> key(name) t = table [
    { name: "John", salary: 100 },
    { name: "Jane", salary: 200 }
];

function increaseSalary(int n) {
    // Iterates over the rows of `t` in the specified order.
    foreach Employee e in t {
        e.salary += n;
    }
    
}

public function main() {
    // Retrieves the `Employee` member with `"Fred"` as the value of the key.
    Employee? e = t["Fred"];
    io:println(e.toBalString());

    increaseSalary(100);
    io:println(t);
}

Table syntax

A table is a collection of records. Each record represents a row of the table. A table is plain data if and only if its rows are plain data. A table maintains an invariant that each row is uniquely identified by a key. Each row’s key is stored in fields, which must be immutable.

Compared to maps,

  • key is part of the value rather than being separate.
  • The type of the key is not restricted to string.
  • The order of the members is preserved.


A record field can be declared as readonly. A value cannot be assigned to such a field after the record is created. The table type gives the type of the row and the name of the key field. The table constructor expression looks like an array constructor. The foreach statement will iterate over a table’s rows in their order. Use t[k] to access a row using its key.

 
import ballerina/io;

type Employee record {
    readonly string name;
    int salary;
};

table<Employee> key(name) t = table [
    { name: "John", salary: 100 },
    { name: "Jane", salary: 200 }
];

Creates a table with members of the Employee type, where each member is uniquely identified using their name field.

function increaseSalary(int n) {

    foreach Employee e in t {
        e.salary += n;
    }
    
}

Iterates over the rows of t in the specified order.

public function main() {

    Employee? e = t["Fred"];
    io:println(e.toBalString());

Retrieves the Employee member with "Fred" as the value of the key.

    increaseSalary(100);
    io:println(t);
}

bal run table_syntax.bal
()
[{"name":"John","salary":200},{"name":"Jane","salary":300}]