Book Image

Solidity Programming Essentials

Book Image

Solidity Programming Essentials

Overview of this book

Solidity is a contract-oriented language whose syntax is highly influenced by JavaScript, and is designed to compile code for the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Solidity Programming Essentials will be your guide to understanding Solidity programming to build smart contracts for Ethereum and blockchain from ground-up. We begin with a brief run-through of blockchain, Ethereum, and their most important concepts or components. You will learn how to install all the necessary tools to write, test, and debug Solidity contracts on Ethereum. Then, you will explore the layout of a Solidity source file and work with the different data types. The next set of recipes will help you work with operators, control structures, and data structures while building your smart contracts. We take you through function calls, return types, function modifers, and recipes in object-oriented programming with Solidity. Learn all you can on event logging and exception handling, as well as testing and debugging smart contracts. By the end of this book, you will be able to write, deploy, and test smart contracts in Ethereum. This book will bring forth the essence of writing contracts using Solidity and also help you develop Solidity skills in no time.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Using a Block Explorer


A Block Explorer is an Ethereum browser. It provides reports and information about current blocks and transactions in its network. It's a great place to learn more about existing and past data. It is available at https://etherscan.io/, as shown in the following screenshot:

It shows transactions involving both accounts and contracts. Clicking on a transaction shows details about it, as shown in the following screenshot:

By now, you understand the details about transactions stored within the Ethereum ledger. From the preceding screenshot, let's take a look at the following few details of the transaction:

  • TxHash: This detail refers to transaction hashes
  • TxReceipt Status: This detail represents the status of a transaction, whether successful or pending
  • Block Height: This detail shows which block number the transaction is stored in
  • TimeStamp: This detail shows the timestamp for the transaction
  • From: This detail shows who sent the transaction
  • To: This detail shows the recipient...