Thread overview
Constructors not working
Sep 02, 2022
Svyat
Sep 02, 2022
rikki cattermole
Sep 03, 2022
Tejas
Sep 02, 2022
Ali Çehreli
Sep 02, 2022
Ali Çehreli
Sep 03, 2022
Mathias LANG
September 02, 2022

I write this code in one directory:

module time;

struct Time {
    public int hours, minutes, seconds;
    this(int h, int m, int s) {
        hours = h;
        minutes = m;
        seconds = s;
    }
    Time opBinary(string op : "=")(int secos) {
        assert(secos <= 86_400);
        return new Time(secos / 3600, (secos % 3600) / 60, secos % 60);
    }
}

module testfortime;
import time;
import std.stdio;

void main() {
    Time time = 360;
    write(time.hours);
    readln;
}

After execute 'dmd -run ./testfortime.d' i got this:
".\testfortime.d(6): Error: constructor time.Time.this(int h, int m, int s) is not callable using argument types (int)
.\testfortime.d(6): too few arguments, expected 3, got 1"

WTF? Why standart constructor isnt callable? How its possible in a programming language?

September 03, 2022
I think you are wanting opAssign not opBinary.

Also you made a mistake, since its a struct you don't want to new it when you construct and return it.

```d
return new Time(secos / 3600, (secos % 3600) / 60, secos % 60);
```

Would be a ``Time*`` not ``Time`` which is what you returned.
September 02, 2022
On 9/2/22 11:35, Svyat wrote:

>          Time time = 360;

It seems to be more idiomatic to write it like this:

  auto time = Time(360);

Or const, immutable, etc.

  const time = Time(360); // Now un-assignable

But you would get the same compilation error. So, one way to work with it is to use default constructor arguments:

  this(int h, int m = 0, int s = 0)

Then it would work with just 360.

> .\testfortime.d(6):        too few arguments, expected `3`, got `1`"

At least that one is helpful. There are much more cryptic error messages out there. :)

Ali

September 02, 2022
I forgot to say that you don't need to write a constructor for most structs because Time's constructor-generated default constructor works like yours and with default arguments:

struct Time {
  public int hours, minutes, seconds;

  // No constructor needed here.

  // Note 'return this;' as the last statement would be
  // mimicing how fundamental types like 'int'
  // work. However, I am getting the following warning when
  // I do that:
  //
  //   Deprecation: returning `this` escapes a reference to
  //   parameter `this` perhaps annotate the function with
  //   `return`
  //
  // For simplicity, I will just return void in this code.
  //
  void opAssign(int secos) {
    assert(secos <= 86_400);
    hours = secos / 3600;
    minutes = (secos % 3600) / 60;
    seconds = secos % 60;
  }
}

import std.stdio;

void main() {
  auto time = Time(360);
  time = 12_345;
  writeln(time);
  readln;
}

Ali

September 03, 2022

On Friday, 2 September 2022 at 18:39:27 UTC, rikki cattermole wrote:

>

I think you are wanting opAssign not opBinary.

Also you made a mistake, since its a struct you don't want to new it when you construct and return it.

return new Time(secos / 3600, (secos % 3600) / 60, secos % 60);

Would be a Time* not Time which is what you returned.

And shouldn't an opAssign be void anyways? Doubt there's many people writing stuff like auto c = (a = b);, where a is a struct/class.

September 03, 2022

On Friday, 2 September 2022 at 18:35:22 UTC, Svyat wrote:

>

I write this code in one directory:

module time;

    struct Time {
        public int hours, minutes, seconds;
        this(int h, int m, int s) {
            hours = h;
            minutes = m;
            seconds = s;
        }
        Time opBinary(string op : "=")(int secos) {
            assert(secos <= 86_400);
            return new Time(secos / 3600, (secos % 3600) / 60, secos % 60);
        }
    }
module testfortime;
import time;
import std.stdio;

    void main() {
        Time time = 360;
        write(time.hours);
        readln;
    }

After execute 'dmd -run ./testfortime.d' i got this:

".\testfortime.d(6): Error: constructor `time.Time.this(int h, int m, int s)` is not callable using argument types `(int)`
.\testfortime.d(6):        too few arguments, expected `3`, got `1`"

WTF? Why standart constructor isnt callable? How its possible in a programming language?

First of all, the error message is telling you what is wrong: You are calling the constructor with only one argument, while your constructor is declared to take 3.
If you wanted your call to work, you should have declared the constructor as:

this(int h, int m = 0, int s = 0) { /* Magic */ }

But D will by default give you a default constructor that does exactly that. And the constructor will be properly attributed, because in your case, the constructor should actually be this:

this(int h, int m = 0, int s = 0) inout scope @safe pure nothrow @nogc { /* Magic */ }

So if you just remove the constructor, things will work. Note that in D, as soon as you define one constructor, the default one is no longer generated.

Second, your opBinary cannot compile, because Time is a struct, and if you are returning a new Time in opBinary, you should return a Time*. Currently it's working because you are not using it.

Finally, there is a module in druntime for time management, which provides a very nice API: core.time : Duration. It will allow you to do everything you want to do with your code, and more.
For example: import core.time; auto time = 1.hour; writeln(time);