• Don Clugston (26/26) Jan 20 2006 The docs do not indicate that 'static if' behaves quite differently to
• Stewart Gordon (26/37) Jan 20 2006
• Don Clugston (3/42) Jan 20 2006 No, it's exactly the same on DMD. It doesn't crash the compiler.

Don Clugston <dac nospam.com.au> writes:

The docs do not indicate that 'static if' behaves quite differently to 
'if'. The following example should compile, but it fails with an access 
violation.
--------------
template zebra(char [] w)
{
   static if (w.length>2 && w[1]=='q') const bool zebra = true;
   else const bool zebra = false;
}

const bool lion = zebra!("a");
--------------
Workaround:

Unlike the situation with if(), you cannot just split the condition into 
two parts. There's no 'return'/'exit template' statement. And you can't 
store the

Because the example above doesn't compile, this has to be rewritten as

template zebra(char [] w)
{
   static if (w.length>2) {
       static if (w[1]=='q') const bool zebra = true;
       else const bool zebra = false;
   } else const bool zebra = false;
}

Note the duplicated code. If the actions for true and false are more 
complicated, it becomes unworkable, and it is necessary to replace the 
condition with a template returning a bool, just like the one above.

Stewart Gordon <smjg_1998 yahoo.com> writes:

Don Clugston wrote:
 The docs do not indicate that 'static if' behaves quite differently to 
 'if'. The following example should compile, but it fails with an access 
 violation.
 --------------
 template zebra(char [] w)
 {
   static if (w.length>2 && w[1]=='q') const bool zebra = true;
   else const bool zebra = false;
 }
 
 const bool lion = zebra!("a");

<snip>

There are two bugs here.  The first is that the compiler doesn't honour 
short-circuit evaluation in a static if, and the second is that it 
doesn't do array bounds checking correctly.

Simply fixing the first would make that compile, but would still mean that

     template zebra(char [] w)
     {
         static if (w[1]=='q') const bool zebra = true;
         else const bool zebra = false;
     }

     const bool lion = zebra!("a");

crashes the compiler.


However, under GDC 0.17 I get (for  your code)

static_if.d:3: string index 1 is out of bounds
static_if.d:7: template instance static_if.zebra!("a") error instantiating


So GDC has only the first of the two bugs.  Strange.

Stewart.

-- 
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/M d- s:- C++  a->--- UB  P+ L E  W++  N+++ o K-  w++  O? M V? PS- 
PE- Y? PGP- t- 5? X? R b DI? D G e++>++++ h-- r-- !y
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

My e-mail is valid but not my primary mailbox.  Please keep replies on 
the 'group where everyone may benefit.

Don Clugston <dac nospam.com.au> writes:

Stewart Gordon wrote:
 Don Clugston wrote:
 
 The docs do not indicate that 'static if' behaves quite differently to 
 'if'. The following example should compile, but it fails with an 
 access violation.
 --------------
 template zebra(char [] w)
 {
   static if (w.length>2 && w[1]=='q') const bool zebra = true;
   else const bool zebra = false;
 }

 const bool lion = zebra!("a");

 
 <snip>
 
 There are two bugs here.  The first is that the compiler doesn't honour 
 short-circuit evaluation in a static if, and the second is that it 
 doesn't do array bounds checking correctly.
 
 Simply fixing the first would make that compile, but would still mean that
 
     template zebra(char [] w)
     {
         static if (w[1]=='q') const bool zebra = true;
         else const bool zebra = false;
     }
 
     const bool lion = zebra!("a");
 
 crashes the compiler.
 
 However, under GDC 0.17 I get (for  your code)
 
 static_if.d:3: string index 1 is out of bounds
 static_if.d:7: template instance static_if.zebra!("a") error instantiating
 
 
 So GDC has only the first of the two bugs.  Strange.

No, it's exactly the same on DMD. It doesn't crash the compiler.
It just doesn't compile. Momentary lapse of reason. Sorry for the confusion.