John Reimer <brk_6502 yahoo.com> writes:

Not sure if I'm clear on this one:

The digitalmars docs say that an enum X { A, B, C } will define A as 0 
implicitly.

It's equivalent to

const int A = 0;
const int B = 1;
const int C = 2;

The enum property max can be used to retrieve the enum's largest value 
such that

X.max is equivalent to X.C (or 2);

Let us go to the arrays section of the documentation now.

Under array initialization, static intialization of static arrays, the 
docs give us an example of using an enumeration max property to set the 
size of an array.

enum Color { red, blue, green };

int value[Color.max] = [ blue:6, green:2, red: 5 ];

How is this done? If Color.max == green == 2 (since Color.red in the 
enum starts at 0 by default), this means that value[] is declared with 
only 2 indexes, but the intialization tries to fill the value[] with 3.

I assume the manual is wrong... or I've missed something obvious.

What would be useful then is having a enum property that actually 
returns the number of enum members (not just max), something like 
Color.atoms or Color.elements (I'm not sure what a good name for that 
would be).

Later,

John

Derek <derek psyc.ward> writes:

On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 09:09:39 -0800, John Reimer wrote:

 Not sure if I'm clear on this one:
 
 The digitalmars docs say that an enum X { A, B, C } will define A as 0 
 implicitly.
 
 It's equivalent to
 
 const int A = 0;
 const int B = 1;
 const int C = 2;
 
 The enum property max can be used to retrieve the enum's largest value 
 such that
 
 X.max is equivalent to X.C (or 2);
 
 Let us go to the arrays section of the documentation now.
 
 Under array initialization, static intialization of static arrays, the 
 docs give us an example of using an enumeration max property to set the 
 size of an array.
 
 enum Color { red, blue, green };
 
 int value[Color.max] = [ blue:6, green:2, red: 5 ];
 
 How is this done? If Color.max == green == 2 (since Color.red in the 
 enum starts at 0 by default), this means that value[] is declared with 
 only 2 indexes, but the intialization tries to fill the value[] with 3.
 
 I assume the manual is wrong... or I've missed something obvious.

<code>
import std.stdio;
enum Color { red, blue, green };
void main()
{
static int value[cast(int)Color.max+1] =
  [ Color.blue:6, Color.green:2, Color.red: 5 ];
writefln("%d", cast(int)Color.max);
}
</code>

In the example above, you need the "+1" otherwise the compiler says "Error:
too many initializers 3 for array[2]"

Also, the enum name qualifiers are required. The Docs need a bit of work
here.

It was curious that the writefln() call needed to have a cast too. I would
have thought that Color.max would have been an int.

 What would be useful then is having a enum property that actually 
 returns the number of enum members (not just max), something like 
 Color.atoms or Color.elements (I'm not sure what a good name for that 
 would be).

Maybe Color.length ?

-- 
Derek
Melbourne, Australia

John Reimer <brk_6502 yahoo.com> writes:

Derek wrote:
 <code>
 import std.stdio;
 enum Color { red, blue, green };
 void main()
 {
 static int value[cast(int)Color.max+1] =
   [ Color.blue:6, Color.green:2, Color.red: 5 ];
 writefln("%d", cast(int)Color.max);
 }
 </code>
 
 In the example above, you need the "+1" otherwise the compiler says "Error:
 too many initializers 3 for array[2]"
 
 Also, the enum name qualifiers are required. The Docs need a bit of work
 here.
 
 It was curious that the writefln() call needed to have a cast too. I would
 have thought that Color.max would have been an int.
 

That's what I ended up doing in my own code... appending the +1.  I 
never tested the qualifier requirement.  That's odd.  I assumed that was 
just some eye candy.  I liked the idea, but it never occured to me that 
it was required.

Concerning the cast(int) requirement for Color.max to work in 
writefln(): perhaps it's due to the compiler "bug fix" in 0.107. 
Specifically,

"Tightened up detection of constants being implicitly converted to a 
type that cannot hold it."

-- 0.107 changelog.

Now this may not seem completely logical... but I recall shortly after 
this fix, there were a huge number of casts that had to be added into D 
source code to make things compile.

Since enums are equivalent to constants, perhaps the issue carries over 
to this situation as well.  Does anyone know if the above example 
compiles without a cast on a previous dmd version?


 
What would be useful then is having a enum property that actually 
returns the number of enum members (not just max), something like 
Color.atoms or Color.elements (I'm not sure what a good name for that 
would be).

 
 
 Maybe Color.length ?
 

Hmmm... it's not quite a "length."  But that's a possible alternative.

Later,

John