On Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:44:23 -0500, Trass3r <u...@known.com> wrote:
Why do they exist
It tells you the exact type of this at the call site. For const struct
functions, this will tell you what the actual constness of the variable
is. For classes, this may give you the derived or base class or interface
so you can do more if you want. For example, you could return the derived
type for chaining.
and why does typeof(this) strip constness?
That seems like a bug, but actually, I'd not trust typeid. typeid is
actually a runtime-defined TypeInfo class, which you are calling toString
on, which is not telling you exactly what the compiler thinks is the
type. Try this instead:
typeof(this).stringof
which is the type the compiler uses. This might still return the wrong
type. I seem to remember typeof(this) is handled specially, so you can
use it inside static functions. You might try this:
auto x = this;
writeln(typeof(x).stringof);
I would still say it's a bug, it's very surprising that inside a const
member function, typeof(this) does not assume the const attribute.
-Steve
