string initialization question.

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:46:20 -0400, bearophile <bearophileHUGS at lycos.com>  
wrote:

> Steven Schveighoffer:
>> >     char[] divider = new char[5];
>> >     divider[] = '-';
>>
>> That assigns 0xff to all divider chars, and then assigns '-'.  I think
>> there's a way to do it without the initial assignment.

I was wrong, I looked through the runtime and did not find such a function.

I think I may have read it in my copy of TDPL that I reviewed.

In any case, I think D deserves a way to do that.

>
> In past there was some way to do that:
> typedef char mchar = '-';
> mchar[] divider = new mchar[5];

As a way to initialize an array, this is horrible :)

> Now you have to initialize the dynamic array two times (using a char  
> struct with alias this is probably not a good idea).
> I have shown this problem, but I think Walter was not interested. Maybe  
> LDC will able to optimize away the first initialization, I have an  
> enhancement request for LLVM.

I think a function to do it is fine, like makeArray('-', 5);

-Steve