Commands that interact with types

The main type inspector in Nu is the describe command that takes any data type on input and reports its type signature.

E.g.

[foo bar baz] | describe
# => list<string>

Commands

• describe

  • describe --detailed (-d) also shows the type of every nested value.

• inspect

• help

• into (subcommands)

  • The into commands are used to cast one type into another.
  • into value converts a custom value (for example a semver or a matrix) into a regular Nushell value.

• detect type

  • Infers a type from a string:

    "42" | detect type | describe
    # => int

    Durations written with units, including several units in a row, are detected too:

    "1hr 3min" | detect type | describe
    # => duration

• ast

  • In the branches of abstract syntax tree that describe the type of some element