V (programming language)

V
The official V logo
Paradigms	Multi-paradigm: functional, imperative, structured, concurrent
Designed by	Alexander Medvednikov1
First appeared	20 June 2019 (2019-06-20)2
Stable release	0.5.13  / March 9, 2026 (March 9, 2026)
Typing discipline	static, strong, inferred
Memory management	optional (automatic or manual)
Implementation language	V
OS	Windows; Unix-like: Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonflyBSD, Solaris
License	MIT
Filename extensions	.v, .vsh
Website	vlang.io
Influenced by
Go, Kotlin, Oberon, Python, Rust, Swift

V, also known as vlang, is an in-development statically typed, compiled programming language created by Alexander Medvednikov in early 2019.⁴ It was inspired by Go, and other programming languages including Oberon, Swift, and Rust.⁵⁶⁷ It is free and open-source software released under the MIT License, and currently in beta.⁸

The goals of V include ease of use, readability, and maintainability.⁹¹⁰¹¹

The new language was created as a result of frustration with existing languages being used for personal projects.¹² It was originally intended for personal use, ¹² but after being mentioned publicly and increasing interest, it was decided to make it public.¹³ V was initially created to develop a desktop messaging client named Volt.⁶ On public release, the compiler was written in V, and could compile itself.⁴¹² Key design goals in creating V were being easy to learn and use, higher readability, fast compiling, increased safety, efficient development, cross-platform usability, improved C interoperability, better error handling, modern features, and more maintainable software.^14151016

V is developed, maintained, and released through GitHub¹⁷⁶ by developers and contributors internationally.⁴ In 2025, V started being ranked on the TIOBE index.¹⁸

V has policies to facilitate memory-safety, speed, and secure code,¹⁴²⁰⁶ including various default features for greater program safety.⁷¹⁴¹² It employs bounds checking, to guard against out of bounds use of variables. Option/result types are used, where the option data type (?) can be represented by none (among possible choices) and the result type (!) can handle any returned errors. To ensure greater safety, error checking is mandatory. By default, the following are immutable: variables, structs, and function arguments. This includes string values are immutable, so elements cannot be mutated. Other protections, which are the default for the language, are: no use of undefined values, variable shadowing, null pointers (unless marked as unsafe), or global variables (unless enabled via flag).

V uses value types and string buffers to reduce memory allocations.²¹²²¹⁴ The language can be compiled to human-readable C,⁷⁴ and in executing and compiling, is considered as fast.¹⁴¹⁵¹²

V supports four memory management options:²³⁶¹²⁴

1. A garbage collector. This is the default.
2. Manual memory management via disabling the garbage collector.
3. Autofree, which is experimental, for invoking the necessary calls to automatically release objects while compiling.
4. Arena allocation.

V supports a source-to-source compiler (transpiler) and can translate C code into V.¹⁵²⁴¹⁰

Working translators are also being developed for Go, JavaScript, and WebAssembly.²⁵²⁶⁴

Representative examples of V syntax include:

The "Hello, World!" program in V:¹⁴²⁷

fn main() {
	println("Hello, World!")
}

Variables are immutable by default and are defined using := and a value. Use the mut reserved word (keyword) to make them mutable. Mutable variables can be assigned to using =:²⁸²⁷

x := 1
mut y := 2
y = 3

Redeclaring a variable, whether in an inner scope or in the same scope, is not allowed:²⁸²⁷

x := 1
{
    x := 3 // error: redefinition of x
}
x := 2 // error: redefinition of x

Struct example:⁹⁷²⁷

struct Foo {
    number int
	name string
    score f32
}

// Struct fields can be initialized by name
var1 := Foo {
    number: 21
    name: "baz"
    score: 2.5
}

// or by position
var2 := Foo{50, "taz", 3.14}

By default, structs are allocated via stack-based memory allocation (on the stack). When structs are referenced by using the prefix & or have the [heap] attribute, they are allocated via heap-based memory allocation (on the heap) instead:⁴²⁷

struct Foo {
    number int
}

@[heap]
struct Baz {
    number f32
}

// Structs that are referenced are heap allocated
var1 := &Foo{2}

// Baz is always heap allocated because of its [heap] attribute
var2 := Baz{4.5}

Methods in V are functions defined with a receiver argument. The receiver appears in its own argument list between the fn keyword and the method name. Methods must be in the same module as the receiver type.

The enrolled_status method (below) has a receiver of type Client named x. The convention is not to use receiver names like self or this, but preferably a short name. For example:⁹¹⁰²⁷

struct Client {
    enrolled bool
}

fn (x Client) enrolled_status() bool {
    return x.enrolled
}

println(Client{enrolled: true}.enrolled_status())  // true
println(Client{enrolled: false}.enrolled_status()) // false

Result types may represent an error returned from a function. Result types are declared by prepending !: !Type

Optional types may represent none. Option types prepend ? to the type name: ?Type.⁹⁷²³²⁷

fn something(t string) !string {
	if t == "foo" { return "foo" }
	return error("invalid")
}

x := something("foo") or { "default" } // x will be "foo"
y := something("baz") or { "default" } // y will be "default"
z := something("baz") or { panic("{err}") } // z will exit with an error

println(x)
println(y)