Definition: An interactive programming environment that reads a single input, evaluates it, prints the result, then loops back to wait for the next input. It lets you run code a piece at a time rather than compiling and running a whole program.
So what? A REPL gives immediate feedback, which makes it handy for exploratory coding, quick debugging, and confirming how a snippet behaves before committing to it.
Examples: Typing node in a terminal to open the Node.js REPL and running expressions line by line; using Python's interactive shell to try a function before adding it to a test.
So what? A REPL gives immediate feedback, which makes it handy for exploratory coding, quick debugging, and confirming how a snippet behaves before committing to it.
Examples: Typing node in a terminal to open the Node.js REPL and running expressions line by line; using Python's interactive shell to try a function before adding it to a test.