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Solidity for Beginners Lecture Notes

Jul 25, 2024

Solidity for Beginners Live Stream Course

Introduction

  • Speaker: Julian, founder of Etheblocks
  • No prerequisites needed
  • Reference to full Solidity boot camp beginning on May 20th
  • Goal: Learn Solidity to start your first freelance gig

What is Solidity?

  • Programming language for writing smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain
  • Resembles JavaScript but has unique complexities
  • Smart contracts: Small programs that run on the blockchain
  • Etherescan: Tool to explore blockchain and view smart contract source code
  • Solidity is compiled down to EVM bytecode for Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)
  • Compatible with other blockchains like BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, and more

Creating Your First Smart Contract

  1. Tool: Remix.ethereum.org (online IDE for Solidity)
  2. Steps: Create a contract named HelloWorld.sol pragma solidity ^0.8.25; contract HelloWorld { function hello() public pure returns (string memory) { return 'Hello, World!'; } }
  3. Deploying and testing:
    • Set the environment to Remix VM
    • Deploy and interact with the contract functions

Solidity Basics

  • Contracts and Functions: Defining a smart contract
    • contract: Keyword for defining a contract
    • Functions: Defined with function keyword, external to interact from outside
    • State variables: Variables stored on the blockchain uint public var1 = 10; uint private var2;
  • Access Modifiers: Public, private, external, internal
  • Types: uint (unsigned integers), address, string, and boolean

Reading and Modifying State Variables

  • Pure functions: Read-only, return static data
  • View functions: Read state variables without modifying them
  • Functions to modify data: function increment() public { data += 1; } function decrement() public { data -= 1; }

Handling Transactions and Ether

  • Sending Ether: function deposit() external payable {} function withdraw(address payable to, uint amount) external { to.transfer(amount); }
  • Understanding gas costs: Required fees for transactions
  • Payment in different units: ether vs. wei

Advanced Data Structures

  • Arrays: Store multiple values uint[] public balances; function addBalance(uint value) public { balances.push(value); } function getBalance(uint index) public view returns (uint) { return balances[index]; }
  • Mappings: Key-value stores for more complex data management mapping(address => uint) public balances; function setBalance(address addr, uint value) public { balances[addr] = value; } function getBalance(address addr) public view returns (uint) { return balances[addr]; }

Security and Access Control

  • Constructor: Initializes contract state
  • Access control: Restrict function execution to certain addresses address public owner; constructor() { owner = msg.sender; } function onlyOwner() public view returns(bool) { return msg.sender == owner; } function withdraw(uint amount) public { require(msg.sender == owner, 'Only owner'); msg.sender.transfer(amount); }

Custom Data Structures with Structs

  • Structs: Define custom types with multiple properties struct User { uint balance; string name; uint joinDate; } mapping(address => User) public users; function createUser(address userAddr, uint balance, string memory name) public { users[userAddr] = User(balance, name, block.timestamp); } function getUser(address userAddr) public view returns (User memory) { return users[userAddr]; }

Conclusion

  • Wrap-up of the basic concepts covered
  • Encouragement to join the full Solidity boot camp for more in-depth learning and readiness for freelance opportunities