Gleam Type System

Gleam's type system enables type-safe BEAM applications through algebraic data types, generics, and exhaustive pattern matching. It provides compile-time safety, no-null guarantees with Result and Option types, and prevents runtime type errors before deployment.

Gleam enforces exhaustive pattern matching at compile time, requiring you to handle all possible cases of algebraic data types. This eliminates logic gaps that cause runtime failures, making error handling explicit and type-checked rather than optional.

Yes. Gleam compiles to the Erlang VM (BEAM), inheriting OTP's concurrency and fault-tolerance primitives. Its type system layers on top of BEAM's actor model, ensuring type safety while building distributed, resilient applications.

Gleam infers types automatically during compilation, reducing boilerplate while maintaining full type safety. You declare custom types and algebraic data types once; the compiler deduces types at call sites, catching mismatches at build time.

Yes. Gleam uses Result and Option types for explicit, type-safe error handling. Result wraps success or failure values; Option represents presence or absence. Both force you to handle errors at compile time rather than risking unhandled exceptions.

Yes. Gleam's opaque types and type aliases create clean public APIs by restricting access to internal structure. Callers interact only with the exported interface, enforcing encapsulation and enabling safe refactoring without breaking contracts.