Pointer vs Ref

[confuzzled]

On 6/15/25 9:06 AM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
> On Monday, 9 June 2025 at 07:24:41 UTC, confuzzled wrote:
>> Hello community,
>>
>> Is it possible to accomplish the following using ref instead of 
>> pointers? If so, please share an example.
> 
> 
> A ref cannot be a member of a type. But ref can be returned by a function.
> 
> So what you want is a *property* function:
> 
> ```d
> struct Engine
> {
>      private const(DataSource)* _dataSourceStorage;
> 
>      this(ref const(DataSource) dataSource)
>      {
>          this._dataSourceStorage = &dataSource;
>      }
> 
>      @property ref dataSource() => *_dataSourceStorage;
> 
>      ... // rest the same
> }
> 
> ...
> 
> void main()
> {
>      auto myData = DataSource([10, 20, 30]);
>      auto myEngine = Engine(myData); // initialize via ref
>      ...
> }
> ```
> 
> -Steve


This is perfect. Thanks Steve. I had all but given up on this.