type conversions

[Jonathan M Davis]

On Monday, April 30, 2012 01:42:38 WhatMeWorry wrote:
> I'm trying to get my head around D's type conversion. What is the
> best way to convert a string to a char array? Or I should say is
> this the best way?
> 
> string s = "Hello There";
> char[] c;
> 
> c = string.dup;

dup will return a mutable copy of an array. idup will return an immutable copy 
of an array. They will both always copy. If you want to convert without having 
to make a copy if the array is of the constancy that you want already (e.g. if 
a templated function is templated on string type, and it could be any 
constancy of char[]), then use std.conv.to.

auto c = to!(char[])(str);

If str was already char[], then it will just be returned, whereas if it's 
immutable(char)[], then it would dup it and return that.

> Also, what is the best way to explicitly convert a string to an
> int?  I've been looking at Library Reference (Phobos) but I'm
> stuck.

Use std.conv.to:

auto i = to!string("1234");

std.conv.to is what you use for pretty much any conversion.

- Jonathan M Davis