!in

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

bearophile wrote:
> Andrei Alexandrescu:
> 
>> I think a best-effort search is not widely useful.<
> 
> I meant using a hash search in a hash and a linear search in an 
> array, etc. And having the same syntax to search in different type of
>  collections is widely useful.

What evidence do you have that it's widely useful?

>> Searching an array literal vs. an array variable is not a special 
>> case.<
> 
> I can't agree. They are both arrays.

Well I understand you don't agree from the frame you're now in, but you 
haven't heard my argument yet. Under such conditions you shouldn't say 
"can't"! Here goes my argument.

1. An array literal has no name and cannot be aliased, hence it's 
private to the implementation. The implementation is therefore free to 
induce structure on the searched elements, e.g. by sorting the array or 
using a hash.

2. The size of an array variable must be conservatively assumed to scale 
with the size of the input. The size of an array literal scales with the 
size of the program, or in the worst case (code generation) with 
statically-known inputs to the program.


Andrei