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Module std.range

This module defines the notion of a range. Ranges generalize the concept of arrays, lists, or anything that involves sequential access. This abstraction enables the same set of algorithms (see std.algorithm) to be used with a vast variety of different concrete types. For example, a linear search algorithm such as find works not just for arrays, but for linked-lists, input files, incoming network data, etc.

Guides

There are many articles available that can bolster understanding ranges:

Submodules

This module has two submodules:

The std.range.primitives submodule provides basic range functionality. It defines several templates for testing whether a given object is a range, what kind of range it is, and provides some common range operations.

The std.range.interfaces submodule provides object-based interfaces for working with ranges via runtime polymorphism.

The remainder of this module provides a rich set of range creation and composition templates that let you construct new ranges out of existing ranges:

chain Concatenates several ranges into a single range.
choose Chooses one of two ranges at runtime based on a boolean condition.
chooseAmong Chooses one of several ranges at runtime based on an index.
chunks Creates a range that returns fixed-size chunks of the original range.
cycle Creates an infinite range that repeats the given forward range indefinitely. Good for implementing circular buffers.
drop Creates the range that results from discarding the first n elements from the given range.
dropBack Creates the range that results from discarding the last n elements from the given range.
dropExactly Creates the range that results from discarding exactly n of the first elements from the given range.
dropBackExactly Creates the range that results from discarding exactly n of the last elements from the given range.
dropOne Creates the range that results from discarding the first element from the given range.
dropBackOne Creates the range that results from discarding the last element from the given range.
enumerate Iterates a range with an attached index variable.
evenChunks Creates a range that returns a number of chunks of approximately equal length from the original range.
frontTransversal Creates a range that iterates over the first elements of the given ranges.
generate Creates a range by successive calls to a given function. This allows to create ranges as a single delegate.
indexed Creates a range that offers a view of a given range as though its elements were reordered according to a given range of indices.
iota Creates a range consisting of numbers between a starting point and ending point, spaced apart by a given interval.
lockstep Iterates n ranges in lockstep, for use in a foreach loop. Similar to zip, except that lockstep is designed especially for foreach loops.
nullSink An output range that discards the data it receives.
only Creates a range that iterates over the given arguments.
padLeft Pads a range to a specified length by adding a given element to the front of the range. Is lazy if the range has a known length.
padRight Lazily pads a range to a specified length by adding a given element to the back of the range.
radial Given a random-access range and a starting point, creates a range that alternately returns the next left and next right element to the starting point.
recurrence Creates a forward range whose values are defined by a mathematical recurrence relation.
refRange Pass a range by reference. Both the original range and the RefRange will always have the exact same elements. Any operation done on one will affect the other.
repeat Creates a range that consists of a single element repeated n times, or an infinite range repeating that element indefinitely.
retro Iterates a bidirectional range backwards.
roundRobin Given n ranges, creates a new range that return the n first elements of each range, in turn, then the second element of each range, and so on, in a round-robin fashion.
sequence Similar to recurrence, except that a random-access range is created.
slide Creates a range that returns a fixed-size sliding window over the original range. Unlike chunks, it advances a configurable number of items at a time, not one chunk at a time.
stride Iterates a range with stride n.
tail Return a range advanced to within n elements of the end of the given range.
take Creates a sub-range consisting of only up to the first n elements of the given range.
takeExactly Like take, but assumes the given range actually has n elements, and therefore also defines the length property.
takeNone Creates a random-access range consisting of zero elements of the given range.
takeOne Creates a random-access range consisting of exactly the first element of the given range.
tee Creates a range that wraps a given range, forwarding along its elements while also calling a provided function with each element.
transposed Transposes a range of ranges.
transversal Creates a range that iterates over the n'th elements of the given random-access ranges.
zip Given n ranges, creates a range that successively returns a tuple of all the first elements, a tuple of all the second elements, etc.

Sortedness

Ranges whose elements are sorted afford better efficiency with certain operations. For this, the assumeSorted function can be used to construct a SortedRange from a pre-sorted range. The sort function also conveniently returns a SortedRange. SortedRange objects provide some additional range operations that take advantage of the fact that the range is sorted.

Functions

NameDescription
assumeSorted(r) Assumes r is sorted by predicate pred and returns the corresponding SortedRange!(pred, R) having r as support. To check for sorted-ness at cost Ο(n), use isSorted.
bitwise(range) Bitwise adapter over an integral type range. Consumes the range elements bit by bit, from the least significant bit to the most significant bit.
chain(rs) Spans multiple ranges in sequence. The function chain takes any number of ranges and returns a Chain!(R1, R2,...) object. The ranges may be different, but they must have the same element type. The result is a range that offers the front, popFront, and empty primitives. If all input ranges offer random access and length, Chain offers them as well.
choose(condition, r1, r2) Choose one of two ranges at runtime depending on a Boolean condition.
chooseAmong(index, rs) Choose one of multiple ranges at runtime.
chunks(source, chunkSize) This range iterates over fixed-sized chunks of size chunkSize of a source range. Source must be an input range. chunkSize must be greater than zero.
cycle(input) Repeats the given forward range ad infinitum. If the original range is infinite (fact that would make Cycle the identity application), Cycle detects that and aliases itself to the range type itself. That works for non-forward ranges too. If the original range has random access, Cycle offers random access and also offers a constructor taking an initial position index. Cycle works with static arrays in addition to ranges, mostly for performance reasons.
drop(range, n) Convenience function which calls popFrontN(range, n) and returns range. drop makes it easier to pop elements from a range and then pass it to another function within a single expression, whereas popFrontN would require multiple statements.
dropBack(range, n) Convenience function which calls popFrontN(range, n) and returns range. drop makes it easier to pop elements from a range and then pass it to another function within a single expression, whereas popFrontN would require multiple statements.
dropBackExactly(range, n) Similar to drop and dropBack but they call range.popFrontExactly(n) and range.popBackExactly(n) instead.
dropBackOne(range) Convenience function which calls range.popFront() and returns range. dropOne makes it easier to pop an element from a range and then pass it to another function within a single expression, whereas popFront would require multiple statements.
dropExactly(range, n) Similar to drop and dropBack but they call range.popFrontExactly(n) and range.popBackExactly(n) instead.
dropOne(range) Convenience function which calls range.popFront() and returns range. dropOne makes it easier to pop an element from a range and then pass it to another function within a single expression, whereas popFront would require multiple statements.
enumerate(range, start) Iterate over range with an attached index variable.
evenChunks(source, chunkCount) This range splits a source range into chunkCount chunks of approximately equal length. Source must be a forward range with known length.
frontTransversal(rr) Given a range of ranges, iterate transversally through the first elements of each of the enclosed ranges.
generate(fun) Given callable (isCallable) fun, create as a range whose front is defined by successive calls to fun(). This is especially useful to call function with global side effects (random functions), or to create ranges expressed as a single delegate, rather than an entire front/popFront/empty structure. fun maybe be passed either a template alias parameter (existing function, delegate, struct type defining static opCall) or a run-time value argument (delegate, function object). The result range models an InputRange (isInputRange). The resulting range will call fun() on construction, and every call to popFront, and the cached value will be returned when front is called.
indexed(source, indices) This struct takes two ranges, source and indices, and creates a view of source as if its elements were reordered according to indices. indices may include only a subset of the elements of source and may also repeat elements.
iota(begin, end, step) Creates a range of values that span the given starting and stopping values.
lockstep(ranges) Iterate multiple ranges in lockstep using a foreach loop. In contrast to zip it allows reference access to its elements. If only a single range is passed in, the Lockstep aliases itself away. If the ranges are of different lengths and s == StoppingPolicy.shortest stop after the shortest range is empty. If the ranges are of different lengths and s == StoppingPolicy.requireSameLength, throw an exception. s may not be StoppingPolicy.longest, and passing this will throw an exception.
nullSink() An OutputRange that discards the data it receives.
only(values) Assemble values into a range that carries all its elements in-situ.
padLeft(r, e, n) Extends the length of the input range r by padding out the start of the range with the element e. The element e must be of a common type with the element type of the range r as defined by CommonType. If n is less than the length of of r, then r is returned unmodified.
padRight(r, e, n) Extend the length of the input range r by padding out the end of the range with the element e. The element e must be of a common type with the element type of the range r as defined by CommonType. If n is less than the length of of r, then the contents of r are returned.
radial(r, startingIndex) Iterates a random-access range starting from a given point and progressively extending left and right from that point. If no initial point is given, iteration starts from the middle of the range. Iteration spans the entire range.
recurrence(initial) Creates a mathematical sequence given the initial values and a recurrence function that computes the next value from the existing values. The sequence comes in the form of an infinite forward range. The type Recurrence itself is seldom used directly; most often, recurrences are obtained by calling the function recurrence.
refRange(range) Wrapper which effectively makes it possible to pass a range by reference. Both the original range and the RefRange will always have the exact same elements. Any operation done on one will affect the other. So, for instance, if it's passed to a function which would implicitly copy the original range if it were passed to it, the original range is not copied but is consumed as if it were a reference type.
repeat(value) Create a range which repeats one value.
retro(r) Iterates a bidirectional range backwards. The original range can be accessed by using the source property. Applying retro twice to the same range yields the original range.
roundRobin(rs) roundRobin(r1, r2, r3) yields r1.front, then r2.front, then r3.front, after which it pops off one element from each and continues again from r1. For example, if two ranges are involved, it alternately yields elements off the two ranges. roundRobin stops after it has consumed all ranges (skipping over the ones that finish early).
sequence(args) Sequence is similar to Recurrence except that iteration is presented in the so-called closed form. This means that the nth element in the series is computable directly from the initial values and n itself. This implies that the interface offered by Sequence is a random-access range, as opposed to the regular Recurrence, which only offers forward iteration.
slide(source, windowSize, stepSize) A fixed-sized sliding window iteration of size windowSize over a source range by a custom stepSize.
stride(r, n) Iterates range r with stride n. If the range is a random-access range, moves by indexing into the range; otherwise, moves by successive calls to popFront. Applying stride twice to the same range results in a stride with a step that is the product of the two applications. It is an error for n to be 0.
tail(range, n) Return a range advanced to within _n elements of the end of range.
take(input, n) Lazily takes only up to n elements of a range. This is particularly useful when using with infinite ranges.
takeExactly(range, n) Similar to take, but assumes that range has at least n elements. Consequently, the result of takeExactly(range, n) always defines the length property (and initializes it to n) even when range itself does not define length.
takeNone() Returns an empty range which is statically known to be empty and is guaranteed to have length and be random access regardless of R's capabilities.
takeNone(range) Creates an empty range from the given range in Ο(1). If it can, it will return the same range type. If not, it will return takeExactly(range, 0).
takeOne(source) Returns a range with at most one element; for example, takeOne([42, 43, 44]) returns a range consisting of the integer 42. Calling popFront() off that range renders it empty.
tee(inputRange, outputRange) Implements a "tee" style pipe, wrapping an input range so that elements of the range can be passed to a provided function or OutputRange as they are iterated over. This is useful for printing out intermediate values in a long chain of range code, performing some operation with side-effects on each call to front or popFront, or diverting the elements of a range into an auxiliary OutputRange.
transposed(rr) Given a range of ranges, returns a range of ranges where the i'th subrange contains the i'th elements of the original subranges.
transversal(rr, n) Given a range of ranges, iterate transversally through the nth element of each of the enclosed ranges. This function is similar to unzip in other languages.
zip(ranges) Iterate several ranges in lockstep. The element type is a proxy tuple that allows accessing the current element in the nth range by using e[n].

Structs

NameDescription
Chunks This range iterates over fixed-sized chunks of size chunkSize of a source range. Source must be an input range. chunkSize must be greater than zero.
Cycle Repeats the given forward range ad infinitum. If the original range is infinite (fact that would make Cycle the identity application), Cycle detects that and aliases itself to the range type itself. That works for non-forward ranges too. If the original range has random access, Cycle offers random access and also offers a constructor taking an initial position index. Cycle works with static arrays in addition to ranges, mostly for performance reasons.
EvenChunks This range splits a source range into chunkCount chunks of approximately equal length. Source must be a forward range with known length.
FrontTransversal Given a range of ranges, iterate transversally through the first elements of each of the enclosed ranges.
Indexed This struct takes two ranges, source and indices, and creates a view of source as if its elements were reordered according to indices. indices may include only a subset of the elements of source and may also repeat elements.
Lockstep Iterate multiple ranges in lockstep using a foreach loop. In contrast to zip it allows reference access to its elements. If only a single range is passed in, the Lockstep aliases itself away. If the ranges are of different lengths and s == StoppingPolicy.shortest stop after the shortest range is empty. If the ranges are of different lengths and s == StoppingPolicy.requireSameLength, throw an exception. s may not be StoppingPolicy.longest, and passing this will throw an exception.
NullSink An OutputRange that discards the data it receives.
Recurrence Creates a mathematical sequence given the initial values and a recurrence function that computes the next value from the existing values. The sequence comes in the form of an infinite forward range. The type Recurrence itself is seldom used directly; most often, recurrences are obtained by calling the function recurrence.
RefRange Wrapper which effectively makes it possible to pass a range by reference. Both the original range and the RefRange will always have the exact same elements. Any operation done on one will affect the other. So, for instance, if it's passed to a function which would implicitly copy the original range if it were passed to it, the original range is not copied but is consumed as if it were a reference type.
Repeat Create a range which repeats one value.
Sequence Sequence is similar to Recurrence except that iteration is presented in the so-called closed form. This means that the nth element in the series is computable directly from the initial values and n itself. This implies that the interface offered by Sequence is a random-access range, as opposed to the regular Recurrence, which only offers forward iteration.
SortedRange Represents a sorted range. In addition to the regular range primitives, supports additional operations that take advantage of the ordering, such as merge and binary search. To obtain a SortedRange from an unsorted range r, use sort which sorts r in place and returns the corresponding SortedRange. To construct a SortedRange from a range r that is known to be already sorted, use assumeSorted.
Take Lazily takes only up to n elements of a range. This is particularly useful when using with infinite ranges.
Transversal Given a range of ranges, iterate transversally through the nth element of each of the enclosed ranges. This function is similar to unzip in other languages.
Zip Iterate several ranges in lockstep. The element type is a proxy tuple that allows accessing the current element in the nth range by using e[n].

Enums

NameDescription
SearchPolicy Policy used with the searching primitives lowerBound, upperBound, and equalRange of SortedRange below.
SortedRangeOptions Options for SortedRange ranges (below).
StoppingPolicy Dictates how iteration in a zip and lockstep should stop. By default stop at the end of the shortest of all ranges.
TransverseOptions Options for the FrontTransversal and Transversal ranges (below).

Manifest constants

NameTypeDescription
isSomeFiniteCharInputRange This simplifies a commonly used idiom in phobos for accepting any kind of string parameter. The type R can for example be a simple string, chained string using std.range.chain, chainPath or any other input range of characters.
isTwoWayCompatible Returns true if fn accepts variables of type T1 and T2 in any order. The following code should compile:

Aliases

NameTypeDescription
Cycle R Repeats the given forward range ad infinitum. If the original range is infinite (fact that would make Cycle the identity application), Cycle detects that and aliases itself to the range type itself. That works for non-forward ranges too. If the original range has random access, Cycle offers random access and also offers a constructor taking an initial position index. Cycle works with static arrays in addition to ranges, mostly for performance reasons.
SortedRange SortedRange!(Unqual!(typeof(Range._input)),pred,opt) Represents a sorted range. In addition to the regular range primitives, supports additional operations that take advantage of the ordering, such as merge and binary search. To obtain a SortedRange from an unsorted range r, use sort which sorts r in place and returns the corresponding SortedRange. To construct a SortedRange from a range r that is known to be already sorted, use assumeSorted.
Take R Lazily takes only up to n elements of a range. This is particularly useful when using with infinite ranges.

Authors

Andrei Alexandrescu, David Simcha, Jonathan M Davis, and Jack Stouffer. Credit for some of the ideas in building this module goes to Leonardo Maffi.

License

Boost License 1.0.