changing in two arrays

[Steven Schveigoffer]

simendsjo Wrote:

> On 26.06.2011 13:59, %u wrote:
> > hi
> > I create two arrays and I want the change in one of them effects the other one.
> >
> > i try
> >
> > int[] array1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
> > int[] array2;
> > array2 = array1; // without .dup
> >
> > assert(array1 == array2);
> > assert(array1 is array2); // here i am confused because 'is' mean thay have
> > the same address or what?
> >
> > array2 ~= 6;
> > assert(array1 == [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]); // here is the problem
> > assert(array2 == [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]);
> >
> 
> The runtime will duplicate array2 to avoid array stomping. Steven 
> Schveighoffer wrote a nice article on arrays you should read: 
> http://www.dsource.org/projects/dcollections/wiki/ArrayArticle

This can happen, but in this case, the two slices in fact point at the same data.

The issue here is that the user is expecting the slice type to have full reference semantics. The slice type has its own length -- they do not share the length. So making one longer (by appending in this case) does not change the length of the other.it is a common misconception from people who come from languages that have a full reference array type.

-Steve