Thread overview
[Issue 3715] New: std.string.format can't use const/immutable toString functions
Jan 17, 2010
Tomasz Sowiński
Sep 18, 2010
Jonathan M Davis
Sep 19, 2010
Tomasz Sowiński
Dec 03, 2010
Sobirari Muhomori
Dec 21, 2012
Andrej Mitrovic
January 17, 2010
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3715

           Summary: std.string.format can't use const/immutable toString
                    functions
           Product: D
           Version: 2.036
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Phobos
        AssignedTo: nobody@puremagic.com
        ReportedBy: tomeksowi@gmail.com


--- Comment #0 from Tomasz Sowiński <tomeksowi@gmail.com> 2010-01-17 09:11:29 PST ---
Test case:

struct A {
    string toString() const {
        return "A";
    }
}

void main() {
    writeln(format("%s", A()));
}

Outputs:
std.format.FormatError: std.format Can't convert test.A to string: "string
toStr
ing()" not defined

Same for immutable.

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September 18, 2010
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3715


Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg@gmx.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |jmdavisProg@gmx.com


--- Comment #1 from Jonathan M Davis <jmdavisProg@gmx.com> 2010-09-17 23:48:07 PDT ---
nothrow and pure don't work either. My guess is that toString() must have the
_exact_ signature of public string toString() or it doesn't work with format(),
so _no_ other function modifiers can be used on it.

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September 18, 2010
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3715


Steven Schveighoffer <schveiguy@yahoo.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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                 CC|                            |schveiguy@yahoo.com


--- Comment #2 from Steven Schveighoffer <schveiguy@yahoo.com> 2010-09-18 10:33:52 PDT ---
Yes, std.string.format uses varargs, not templates, so it can only do what the TypeInfo allows it to do.  And the compiler will only store the function pointer to toString if it exactly matches the right signature.

See some related discussion in http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=4290

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September 19, 2010
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3715



--- Comment #3 from Tomasz Sowiński <tomeksowi@gmail.com> 2010-09-19 06:26:24 PDT ---
(In reply to comment #2)
> Yes, std.string.format uses varargs, not templates, so it can only do what the TypeInfo allows it to do.  And the compiler will only store the function pointer to toString if it exactly matches the right signature.

OK, now I understand why it doesn't work, thanks. But how to get it working? In real life toString() will often be const|pure|nothrow because of its nature.

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September 20, 2010
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3715



--- Comment #4 from Steven Schveighoffer <schveiguy@yahoo.com> 2010-09-20 04:36:35 PDT ---
Well, first of all, toString should always be const.

But pure and nothrow are two options that are also valid.  I think some real thought needs to go into delegates and function pointers, and what can implicitly cast.  Right now, there are no implicit casts between function pointers (except const casts which are invalid anyways).

As a workaround, you can do something like this:

struct A {
  /*pure nothrow?*/ string toString() const { return "A"; }
  string toString() {const(A)*me = &this; return me.toString();}
}

What this does is put a common implementation for each overload so you don't have to rewrite it.

When the requirements change (and they will, because toString should be const), then in most cases you can just get away with a const function.  If you want to have pure and nothrow available, then you still have to do something like this.

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December 03, 2010
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--- Comment #5 from Sobirari Muhomori <dfj1esp02@sneakemail.com> 2010-12-02 22:11:40 PST ---
> Right now, there are no implicit casts between function pointers (except const casts which are invalid anyways).

Looks like this is "fixed", see bug 3797.

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December 21, 2012
http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3715


Andrej Mitrovic <andrej.mitrovich@gmail.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEW                         |RESOLVED
                 CC|                            |andrej.mitrovich@gmail.com
         Resolution|                            |FIXED


--- Comment #6 from Andrej Mitrovic <andrej.mitrovich@gmail.com> 2012-12-21 09:09:38 PST ---
Fixed in 2.060.

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