http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=10162

           Summary: Opposite of std.string.representation
           Product: D
           Version: D2
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: Phobos
        AssignedTo: nobody@puremagic.com
        ReportedBy: bearophile_hugs@eml.cc


--- Comment #0 from bearophile_hugs@eml.cc 2013-05-24 05:21:01 PDT ---
I suggest to add to Phobos a simple (unsafe) function that does the opposite of std.string.representation.


An use case is for sorting an array of chars. sort() can't be used on a char[], so you have to conver it to ubyte[] with "representation", but later often you want an array of chars again):

char[] word = ...;
immutable key =
word.representation.sort().release.unrepresentation.assumeUnique;

Or if you start with a word:

string word = ...;
immutable key =
word.dup.representation.sort().release.unrepresentation.assumeUnique;


Such "unrepresentation" function is not safe. If you want to make it a bit safer its post-condition can run std.utf.validate on the result in non-release mode.

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--- Comment #1 from bearophile_hugs@eml.cc 2013-07-26 10:34:57 PDT ---
An alternative name for such function is "assumeChars".

And it should return char[], const(char)[] or immutable(char)[] according to
the input being a ubyte[], const(ubyte)[] or immutable(ubyte)[].

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--- Comment #2 from bearophile_hugs@eml.cc 2013-07-26 10:36:22 PDT ---
(In reply to comment #1)

It could also return wchar[], const(wchar)[], immutable(wchar)[] according to
the input being a ushort[], const(ushort)[] or immutable(ushort)[].

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--- Comment #3 from bearophile_hugs@eml.cc 2013-09-03 09:41:37 PDT ---
Most of my use cases are to sort a char[]. It's a common operation.

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--- Comment #4 from bearophile_hugs@eml.cc 2013-10-30 12:42:15 PDT ---
See also Issue 11356

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