Associative Array, get value instead of poiter using `if (auto ..)`, possible?

[ryuukk_]

On Sunday, 1 September 2024 at 03:06:53 UTC, Paul Backus wrote:
> On Saturday, 31 August 2024 at 22:06:26 UTC, kdevel wrote:
>> Is that functionally different from
>>
>> ```
>> void main()
>> {
>>     import std.stdio;
>>
>>     int[string] test = ["hello": 42];
>>
>>     if (auto p = "hello" in test)
>>     {
>>         writeln("hello => ", *p);
>>     }
>> }
>> ```
>
> It's essentially the same. I only suggested it because the 
> original question was about alternatives to pointers, and 
> `Nullable` isn't a pointer.
>

you are wrong, the question wasn't about "an alternative to 
pointer"

i'll quote myself:

> Is there a way to get the value instead of a pointer? while 
> keeping the conciseness (one line)

this is not asking for an "alternative"

if i have to call `.get` or dereference the pointer myself, the 
premise of "conciseness and one liner" is lost

i pasted a simple example so everyone understands the task, my 
actual use case is more complex and longer


> I suppose it goes to show that avoiding language features just 
> for the sake of it ("no pointers", "no templates", "no 
> imports", ...) is unlikely to accomplish anything useful. :)

you didn't understand the question, so why assume this?

if checking for/getting a value from a hashmap requires all that 
crap, then perhaps something is wrong with the language, and it 
perhaps isn't the one i should have picked for the task

my mistake perhaps, not yours


besides, i do use the language features in my project, templates 
and mixins to solve larger problems, it's great, and reason why i 
picked D

another thing people don't understand:

```
$ time make build-game

real    0m0.402s
user    0m0.352s
sys     0m0.050s
```

i value this too, more than anything else, and i like good error 
messages

i don't like cryptic error messages and 10+ seconds build times

i won't bother reading this thread, as i said, i lost interest, 
if you can't understand what an improvement is from a user PoV, 
then there is nothing else for me to say