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digitalmars.D - Why no struct default constructors?

reply Sean Eskapp <eatingstaples gmail.com> writes:
With the removal of scope classes, the only way of which I know to use RAII
objects is to use structs. This is fine, but structs aren't allowed default
constructors! Why is this?
Feb 12 2011
parent reply Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg gmx.com> writes:
On Saturday 12 February 2011 10:48:04 Sean Eskapp wrote:
 With the removal of scope classes, the only way of which I know to use RAII
 objects is to use structs. This is fine, but structs aren't allowed default
 constructors! Why is this?
It's because they have to have an init property. _All_ types have an init property. It's what they're default initialized to. For bool, it's false. For integral types, it's 0. For floating point types, it's NAN. Etc. For classes, that's null, so they can have default constructors just fine. However, for structs, it must be what the struct's member variables are directly initialized to. If you could have an arbitrary default constructor, then you'd have the problem of it throwing exceptions as well as it trying to run functions which could only be run at runtime. The struct's init value must be known at compile time, and it must _always_ be the same. So, it can't involve any functions which would have to be run at runtime, and it can't involve anything that would result in differing values betwen runs of the default constructor. There has been some discussion of allowing structs to have limited default constructors, but they would still disallow most of the kinds of things that people would want to do with a default constructor. init _must_ be known at compile time. So, its value is taken from the value that a struct gets when all of its member variables have been directly initialized (or default initialized) and no constructor has been called. It _can_ be a bit annoying at times, but it's either that or allow undefined struct values, which would be a big problem and go against D's philosophy on default initialization. Since you can't have a default constructor, what you do instead is define a static opCall() function for the struct and use that. Then you construct a struct (with the name S in this case) like so: auto s = S(); You're still stuck with the init state if you do S s; or if you're dealing with structs in an array and the like (since they're all default constructed to the struct's init property). But you can do RAII just fine. Personally, I _always_ use this syntax when declaring struct variables: auto S = S(); So, the situation isn't exactly ideal, but we're kind of stuck, given the various constraints that we have to work with. - Jonathan M Davis
Feb 12 2011
parent Sean Eskapp <eatingstaples gmail.com> writes:
== Quote from Jonathan M Davis (jmdavisProg gmx.com)'s article
 On Saturday 12 February 2011 10:48:04 Sean Eskapp wrote:
 With the removal of scope classes, the only way of which I know to use RAII
 objects is to use structs. This is fine, but structs aren't allowed default
 constructors! Why is this?
It's because they have to have an init property. _All_ types have an init property. It's what they're default initialized to. For bool, it's false. For integral types, it's 0. For floating point types, it's NAN. Etc. For classes, that's null, so they can have default constructors just fine. However, for structs, it must be what the struct's member variables are directly initialized to. If you could have an arbitrary default constructor, then you'd have the problem of it throwing exceptions as well as it trying to run functions which could only be run at runtime. The struct's init value must be known at compile time, and it must _always_ be the same. So, it can't involve any functions which would have to be run at runtime, and it can't involve anything that would result in differing values betwen runs of the default constructor. There has been some discussion of allowing structs to have limited default constructors, but they would still disallow most of the kinds of things that people would want to do with a default constructor. init _must_ be known at compile time. So, its value is taken from the value that a struct gets when all of its member variables have been directly initialized (or default initialized) and no constructor has been called. It _can_ be a bit annoying at times, but it's either that or allow undefined struct values, which would be a big problem and go against D's philosophy on default initialization. Since you can't have a default constructor, what you do instead is define a static opCall() function for the struct and use that. Then you construct a struct (with the name S in this case) like so: auto s = S(); You're still stuck with the init state if you do S s; or if you're dealing with structs in an array and the like (since they're all default constructed to the struct's init property). But you can do RAII just fine. Personally, I _always_ use this syntax when declaring struct variables: auto S = S(); So, the situation isn't exactly ideal, but we're kind of stuck, given the various constraints that we have to work with. - Jonathan M Davis
Alright, thanks for clearing that up!
Feb 12 2011