Getting associative array value by reference

[Jesse Phillips via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Wednesday, 1 April 2015 at 03:11:58 UTC, Mark Isaacson wrote:
> I'm presently trying to create the value of a key in an 
> associative array if it does not exist, and then maintain a 
> reference/pointer to the value. This is what I came up with, 
> but it seems really crufty and I feel that there must be a 
> cleaner way:
>
> Value[string] assocArray;
>
> foreach (...) {
>   auto value = key in assocArray;
>   if (!value) {
>     assocArray[key] = Value();
>     value = &assocArray[key];
>   }
>   value.memberA++;
>   value.memberB = "foobar";
> }
>
>
> The goal was to avoid writing:
> Value[string] assocArray;
>
> foreach (...) {
>   assocArray[key].memberA++;
>   assocArray[key].memberB = "foobar";
> }
>
> and save a lookup call, but my solution is both less readable 
> and also performs worse for keys not already in the associative 
> array...

You chopped the foreach, can I assume you solition is sooomething 
like:

    foreach(k, ref value; assocArray) ...