Elixir (programming language)

Elixir
Elixir
Paradigms	multi-paradigm: functional, concurrent, distributed, process-oriented
Designed by	José Valim
First appeared	2012;13 years ago (2012)
Stable release	1.18.4 [1]   / 21 May 2025;38 days ago (21 May 2025)
Typing discipline	dynamic, strong
Platform	Erlang
License	Apache License 2.0 [2]
Filename extensions	.ex, .exs
Website	elixir-lang.org
Influenced by
Clojure, Erlang, Ruby
Influenced
Gleam, LFE

Elixir is a functional, concurrent, high-level general-purpose programming language that runs on the BEAM virtual machine, which is also used to implement the Erlang programming language. ^[3] Elixir builds on top of Erlang and shares the same abstractions for building distributed, fault-tolerant applications. Elixir also provides tooling and an extensible design. The latter is supported by compile-time metaprogramming with macros and polymorphism via protocols. ^[4]

The community organizes yearly events in the United States, ^[5] Europe, ^[6] and Japan, ^[7] as well as minor local events and conferences. ^{[8] [9]}

History

José Valim created the Elixir programming language as a research and development project at Plataformatec. His goals were to enable higher extensibility and productivity in the Erlang VM while maintaining compatibility with Erlang's ecosystem. ^{[10] [11]}

Elixir is aimed at large-scale sites and apps. It uses features of Ruby, Erlang, and Clojure to develop a high-concurrency and low-latency language. It was designed to handle large data volumes. Elixir is also used in telecommunications, e-commerce, and finance. ^[12]

In 2021, the Numerical Elixir effort was announced with the goal of bringing machine learning, neural networks, GPU compilation, data processing, and computational notebooks to the Elixir ecosystem. ^[13]

Versioning

Each of the minor versions supports a specific range of Erlang/OTP versions. ^[14] The current stable release version is 1.18.4 ^[1]   .

Features

• Compiles to bytecode for the BEAM virtual machine of Erlang. ^[15] Full interoperability with Erlang code, without runtime impact.
• Scalability and fault-tolerance, thanks to Erlang's lightweight concurrency mechanisms ^[15]
• Built-in tooling for managing dependencies, code compilation, running tests, formatting code, remote debugging and more.
• An interactive REPL inside running programs, including Phoenix web servers, with code reloading and access to internal state
• Everything is an expression ^[15]
• Pattern matching ^[15] to promote assertive code ^[16]
• Type hints for static analysis tools
• Immutable data, with an emphasis, like other functional languages, on recursion and higher-order functions instead of side-effect-based looping
• Shared nothing concurrent programming via message passing (actor model) ^[17]
• Lazy and async collections with streams
• Railway oriented programming via the with construct ^[18]
• Hygienic metaprogramming by direct access to the abstract syntax tree (AST). ^[15] Libraries often implement small domain-specific languages, such as for databases or testing.
• Code execution at compile time. The Elixir compiler also runs on the BEAM, so modules that are being compiled can immediately run code which has already been compiled.
• Polymorphism via a mechanism called protocols. Dynamic dispatch, as in Clojure, however, without multiple dispatch because Elixir protocols dispatch on a single type.
• Support for documentation via Python-like docstrings in the Markdown formatting language ^[15]
• Unicode support and UTF-8 strings

Examples

The following examples can be run in an iex shell or saved in a file and run from the command line by typing elixir <filename>.

Classic Hello world example:

iex> IO.puts("Hello World!")Hello World!

Pipe operator:

iex> "Elixir"|>String.graphemes()|>Enum.frequencies()%{"E" => 1, "i" => 2, "l" => 1, "r" => 1, "x" => 1}iex> %{values:1..5}|>Map.get(:values)|>Enum.map(&&1*2)[2, 4, 6, 8, 10]iex> %{values:1..5}|>Map.get(:values)|>Enum.map(&&1*2)|>Enum.sum()30

Pattern matching (a.k.a. destructuring):

iex> %{left:x}=%{left:5,right:8}iex> x5iex> {:ok,[_|rest]}={:ok,[1,2,3]}iex> rest[2, 3]

Pattern matching with multiple clauses:

iex> caseFile.read("path/to/file")doiex> {:ok,contents}->IO.puts("found file: #{contents}")iex> {:error,reason}->IO.puts("missing file: #{reason}")iex> end

List comprehension:

iex> forn<-1..5,rem(n,2)==1,do:n*n[1, 9, 25]

Asynchronously reading files with streams:

1..5|>Task.async_stream(&File.read!("#{&1}.txt"))|>Stream.filter(fn{:ok,contents}->String.trim(contents)!=""end)|>Enum.join("\n")

Multiple function bodies with guards:

deffib(n)whennin[0,1],do:ndeffib(n),do:fib(n-2)+fib(n-1)

Relational databases with the Ecto library:

schema"weather"dofield:city# Defaults to type :stringfield:temp_lo,:integerfield:temp_hi,:integerfield:prcp,:float,default:0.0endWeather|>where(city:"Kraków")|>order_by(:temp_lo)|>limit(10)|>Repo.all

Sequentially spawning a thousand processes:

fornum<-1..1000,do:spawnfn->IO.puts("#{num*2}")end

Asynchronously performing a task:

task=Task.asyncfn->perform_complex_action()endother_time_consuming_action()Task.awaittask

^{[ citation needed ]}

See also

• Free and open-source software portal

• Concurrent computing
• Distributed computing
• Parallel computing

References

1. "Release 1.18.4". 21 May 2025. Retrieved 25 May 2025.
2. "elixir/LICENSE at master · elixir-lang/elixir · GitHub". GitHub.
3. "Most Popular Programming Languages of 2018 - Elite Infoworld Blog". 2018-03-30. Archived from the original on 2018-05-09. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
4. "Elixir". José Valim. Retrieved 2013-02-17.
5. "ElixirConf" . Retrieved 2018-07-11.
6. "ElixirConf" . Retrieved 2018-07-11.
7. "Erlang & Elixir Fest" . Retrieved 2019-02-18.
8. "Elixir LDN" . Retrieved 2018-07-12.
9. "EMPEX - Empire State Elixir Conference" . Retrieved 2018-07-12.
10. Elixir - A modern approach to programming for the Erlang VM . Retrieved 2013-02-17.
11. José Valim - ElixirConf EU 2017 Keynote. Archived from the original on 2021-11-17. Retrieved 2017-07-14.
12. "Behinde the code: The One Who Created Elixir" . Retrieved 2019-11-25.
13. "Numerical Elixir (Nx)". GitHub . Retrieved 2024-05-06.
14. Elixir is a dynamic, functional language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications: elixir-lang/elixir, Elixir, 2019-04-21, retrieved 2019-04-21
15. "Elixir" . Retrieved 2014-09-07.
16. "Writing assertive code with Elixir". 24 September 2014. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
17. Loder, Wolfgang (12 May 2015). Erlang and Elixir for Imperative Programmers. "Chapter 16: Code Structuring Concepts", section title "Actor Model": Leanpub. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
18. Wlaschin, Scott (May 2013). "Railway Oriented Programming". F# for Fun and Profit. Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.

Further reading

• Simon St. Laurent; J. Eisenberg (December 22, 2016). Introducing Elixir: Getting Started in Functional Programming 2nd Edition. O'Reilly Media. ISBN   978-1491956779.
• Sasa Juric (January 12, 2019). Elixir in Action 2nd Edition. Manning Publications. ISBN   978-1617295027.