• =?UTF-8?B?QWxpIMOHZWhyZWxp?= (25/25) Jun 04 2012 (Influenced by a discussion in the main D newsgroup.)
• Jonathan M Davis (10/39) Jun 04 2012 This is how manifest constants work. They don't actually exist. They're ...

=?UTF-8?B?QWxpIMOHZWhyZWxp?= <acehreli yahoo.com> writes:

(Influenced by a discussion in the main D newsgroup.)

The assert check in the following program passes, indicating that 'a' is 
not 'a'! :p

enum a = [ 1, 2 ];

void main()
{
     assert(a.ptr != a.ptr);
}

Apparently this is due to enum arrays being created every time they are 
used. What is the rationale for this? Is this a limitation of the 
language, dmd, linker?

Surprisingly, it is not surprising ;) when it is a character array:

enum a = "hello";

void main()
{
     assert(a.ptr == a.ptr);  // <-- this time equals
}

I remember reading similar issues with associative arrays. Is that still 
the case? What are the rules for using enum vs. immutable? Should we use 
'enum' for value types but 'immutable' for reference types? (Which is 
clearly not a good guideline, given the "hello" example above).

Thank you,
Ali

-- 
D Programming Language Tutorial: http://ddili.org/ders/d.en/index.html

"Jonathan M Davis" <jmdavisProg gmx.com> writes:

On Monday, June 04, 2012 18:12:57 Ali Çehreli wrote:
 (Influenced by a discussion in the main D newsgroup.)
 
 The assert check in the following program passes, indicating that 'a' is
 not 'a'! :p
 
 enum a = [ 1, 2 ];
 
 void main()
 {
 assert(a.ptr != a.ptr);
 }
 
 Apparently this is due to enum arrays being created every time they are
 used. What is the rationale for this? Is this a limitation of the
 language, dmd, linker?
 
 Surprisingly, it is not surprising ;) when it is a character array:
 
 enum a = "hello";
 
 void main()
 {
 assert(a.ptr == a.ptr); // <-- this time equals
 }
 
 I remember reading similar issues with associative arrays. Is that still
 the case? What are the rules for using enum vs. immutable? Should we use
 'enum' for value types but 'immutable' for reference types? (Which is
 clearly not a good guideline, given the "hello" example above).

This is how manifest constants work. They don't actually exist. They're copy-
pasted everywhere that they're used. If you want an actual variable rather 
than a manifest constant, then you declare a variable (and make it const or 
immutable if you want a constant). The side effect of this for something like 
an array is that you end up with a new array everywhere that it's used rather 
than a slice of the original (since there is no original), which can effect a 
negative effect on performance if you aren't expecting all of those additional 
heap allocations.

- Jonathan M Davis