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digitalmars.D - No property 'clear/shrinkTo' for type 'Appender!(string)'

reply Eric Desbiens <olace.mail gmail.com> writes:
Hello,

If I create an appender for a string, I cannot call the funtion clear or
shrinkTo. For example:

    auto strAppender = appender!string();
    strAppender.clear();
    strAppender.shrinkTo();

gives compilation error. In std.array source code, it seems that it allows
those function to work only on types that are not immutable. But on a normal
string, I can change the length with no problem or reinitialize it.

I am pretty new to D and I just want to be sure that this is a bug before
reporting it in bugzilla or if this is by design.

Thanks
Nov 11 2010
parent "Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy yahoo.com> writes:
On Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:33:41 -0500, Eric Desbiens <olace.mail gmail.com>  
wrote:


 Hello,

 If I create an appender for a string, I cannot call the funtion clear or
 shrinkTo. For example:

     auto strAppender = appender!string();
     strAppender.clear();
     strAppender.shrinkTo();

 gives compilation error. In std.array source code, it seems that it  
 allows
 those function to work only on types that are not immutable. But on a  
 normal
 string, I can change the length with no problem or reinitialize it.

 I am pretty new to D and I just want to be sure that this is a bug before
 reporting it in bugzilla or if this is by design.


It's not a bug, it's to prevent immutable data from being mutated.

When you shrink the length of a builtin string, it does work, but any  
appending from that point will create a copy of that string to append to.   
Appender is built for appending and so is more focused on appending  
in-place.  Therefore, clear and shrinkTo allow you to overwrite the data  
that had already been valid.  This is no good with immutable data.

As a solution, you can simply create a new appender:

strAppender = strAppender.init;

However, that seems limited, now that I look at it.  It may be better to  
allow clear at least to simply reset the appended-to array to null, and  
allow you to start appending again.

Go ahead and file a bug, and mark it as an enhancement.

-Steve
Nov 11 2010