Two question about array

[Jarrett Billingsley]

"Alex" <faint_u at 163.com> wrote in message 
news:fl88r1$1olc$1 at digitalmars.com...
> 1. Is array a class derived from Object? If yes, why i get error message 
> with the following code:
> int[] array;
> Object obj = array;
> If not, is there any general type can represent either an Integer, or an 
> Array? Or a character string?

Arrays are not objects.  They are arrays :)  They are their own type and are 
not related to any other type.

If you need an integer or an array you need some kind of variant type.  If 
you're using Tango, there's tango.core.Variant; if you're using Phobos with 
D1, there's std.boxer; and Phobos with D2 has deprecated std.boxer in favor 
of std.variant.

> 2. simpleArray.length = simpleArray.length * 2 can pass the compile but 
> simpleArray.length *= 2 can't. The compiler complains "simpleArray.length 
> is not an lvalue", what's the problem?

It's because these are really syntactic sugar for function calls. 
"simpleArray.length = 5" is the same as "simpleArray.length(5)".  If you try 
to do "simpleArray.length *= 2" you're basically writing 
"simpleArray.length() *= 2", which obviously makes no sense.  The same thing 
would happen with class properties.

It's dumb.  I know.