Large Arrays and GC

[bearophile]

dsimcha Wrote:
> Does anyone know of another way to manually delete associative arrays?

Time ago I have asked that question, and someone has shown me a way, you can find a modified version of it as the clear() function in my libs:
http://www.fantascienza.net/leonardo/so/libs_d.zip


T clear(T)(ref T items) {
    static if (IsAA!(T)) { // This only works with the current AA implementation
        struct BB {
            void*[] b;
            size_t nodes;
        }
        union ToPtr_clear {
            T x;
            void* ptr;
        }
        ToPtr_clear toptr;

        toptr.x = items;
        BB* b = cast(BB*) toptr.ptr;
        if (b) {
            b.b = null;
            b.nodes = 0;
        }

        return items;
    } else static if (IsDynamicArray!(T)) {
        items.length = 0;
        return items;
    } else
        static assert(0, "clear() accepts only AAs and dynamic arrays.");
}

You can find unittests, ddocs and the IsAA!() into those libs, the "func" module (the IsAA isn't necessary if you just want to use it for AAs).

Bye,
bearophile