2.4. Type Inference

Vala supports a mechanism called type inference (implicit typing) for local variables: local variables may be declared using the var keyword instead of the type name if the compiler can deduce (infer) the type from the initial assignment. This helps avoiding unnecessary redundancy and is especially useful for generic types. Examples:

var obj = new Object ();
var map = new HashMap<string, int> ();
var str = "hello, world";
var arr = new int[10];

instead of:

Object obj = new Object ();
HashMap<string, int> map = new HashMap<string, int> ();
string str = "hello, world";
int[] arr = new int[10];

Still, everything is statically typed.