On Saturday, 21 November 2015 at 18:03:07 UTC, SimonN wrote:
string a = "hello";
string b = a[3 .. 2];
I expect b to become an empty slice, because 3 is >= 2 already
after 0 increments, making the slice length 0. Instead, the
code throws a range violation.
Expressions of this kind come up, e.g., when taking slices near
the end of arrays, like "slice = a[b.length .. $];". To make
this robust, I need an extra check for b.length > a.length,
returning null in this case, otherwise a[b.length .. $].
What's the design reason to prefer throwing over returning an
empty slice?
-- Simon
this is only an error if bounds checking is not turned on. If you
compile your example with DMD option "-boundscheck=off", nothing
happens, and the slice will be equal (here) to a[3..$];
