removing an item from a dynamic array

[Graham Fawcett]

On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:52:57 +0200, Timon Gehr wrote:

> On 10/25/2011 08:38 PM, Graham Fawcett wrote:
>> On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:11:20 -0400, bearophile wrote:
>>
>>> Dmitry Olshansky:
>>>
>>>> No, it's not a bug. It's the same as c++ STL remove - it operates on
>>>> range but not on container. To shrink container, update it's length.
>>>
>>> Thank you for your answer, I didn't know this, and I didn't think
>>> about this possibility because it's weird, it's an in-place operation
>>> that modifies the data only partially, leaving it in a wrong state. It
>>> looks like a bad design, bug prone-too. The design of Python del is
>>> better. (Maybe I'll have to bring this in the main D newsgroup too,
>>> because Phobos bug reports often get unnoticed). In the meantime I'll
>>> add a wrapper function to dlibs2.
>>
>> I think I'd like to see std.array.replaceInPlace grow a three-parameter
>> version, so you could write:
>>
>>    replaceInPlace(arr, f, t);	// del arr[f:t]
>>
>> ...instead of:
>>
>>    replaceInPlace(arr, f, t, cast(typeof(arr)) []);
>>
>> ...and skip the pointless allocation of the empty array.
>>
>> Graham
>>
>>
> There is no allocation, so no significant runtime overhead ( assert([]
> is null); )

Ah, my mistake; that makes sense.

> I can see how the functionality of the overload would be useful, but I
> think it should get a more descriptive name as there is no more
> parameter that specifies with what to _replace_ arr[f..t] with.
> removeInPlace?

Good point -- that would get my vote. Got time for a pull request? :)

Graham