D2: std.algorithm.find, but get part before what you were searching for

[Jonathan M Davis]

Lars T. Kyllingstad wrote:

> Jonathan M Davis wrote:
>> std.algorithm.find() returns the rest of the range starting at what you
>> were searching for (or an empty range if it wasn't in the given range).
>> Is there a function in phobos which does a find but returns everything
>> _before_ what you're searching for?
>> 
>> I can't find one that will do that, and I don't see an obvious way of
>> combining functions to get it. Naturally, I'll roll my own function for
>> it if I have to, but if there's already a way to do it in phobos
>> semi-cleanly, I'd probably prefer to do that. So, I'm enquiring as to
>> whether anyone here knows of such a function or combination of functions.
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> - Jonathan M Davis
> 
> 
> Would std.algorithm.until() be what you're looking for?
> 
>    http://www.digitalmars.com/d/2.0/phobos/std_algorithm.html#until
> 
> -Lars

Hmm. I'd thought that I'd looked at that one and determined that it didn't 
do what I was looking for, but on another inspection of it, it does look 
like until() will do the job. It has the potential downside that unlike 
find, it cannot take multiple ranges to be found, but in my case (and 
probably most cases), that's not an issue. Thanks. Maybe this is what I get 
for coding late at night...

On a side note, it would be great if we could figure out a way to make the 
docs more user-friendly - especially in std.algorithm. The functions are 
great, and they're really versatile, but that seems to come at the cost of 
incredibly nasty signatures. It can make it hard to find the function itself 
among all of its parameters and its return type (especially the return 
type). Right now, I'd expect it to scare a fair number of potential users 
away. What the best solution would be, I don't know (perhaps making it so 
that it lists information on the function without its signature and then 
lists the signature at the end, or maybe we could find some way to give an 
abstracted signature which gave the basic idea without all of the details), 
but right now std.algorthm is definitely scary-looking. It's got great 
stuff, but the docs could definitely use some improvement.

- Jonathan M Davis