Re: An struct copy constructor that can cope with an AA?

[Steven Schveighoffer via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On 3/9/20 9:23 AM, mark wrote:
I have this struct:
struct Deb {
     string name;
     ...
     Unit[string] tags; // set of tags

     Deb copy() const {
         Deb deb;
         ...
         foreach (key, value; tags) // XXX
             deb.tags[key] = value;
         return deb;
     }

     void clear() {
         name = "";
         ...
         tags.clear;
     }

....
}

I am populating an AA with these structs:

Deb[string] debForName;

I'm using this approach (pseudo-code):

Deb deb;
foreach (datum; data) {
     populateDeb(datum, deb);
     debForName[deb.name] = deb.copy; // YYY
     deb.clear;
}

(1) XXX Is there a nicer way to copy an AA?

aa.dup. However, this isn't going to work in a const member function 
(though technically there shouldn't be anything wrong with it).

(2) YYY Is there a nicer way to copy a struct? Use a copy constructor or 
implement a dup or idup?

I would name it dup instead of copy for consistency with D. A copy 
constructor is pretty heavy for a struct to do a complete duplication of 
the AA. You should have to opt-in to that.

-Steve