typetraits

This module defines compile-time reflection procs for working with types.

Unstable API.

Types

StaticParam[value] = object
  
used to wrap a static value in genericParams   Source Edit

Procs

proc name(t: typedesc): string {...}{.magic: "TypeTrait".}

Returns the name of the given type.

Alias for system.`$`(t) since Nim v0.20.

  Source Edit
proc arity(t: typedesc): int {...}{.magic: "TypeTrait".}
Returns the arity of the given type. This is the number of "type" components or the number of generic parameters a given type t has.

Example:

assert arity(seq[string]) == 1
assert arity(array[3, int]) == 2
assert arity((int, int, float, string)) == 4
  Source Edit
proc genericHead(t: typedesc): typedesc {...}{.magic: "TypeTrait".}

Accepts an instantiated generic type and returns its uninstantiated form.

For example:

  • seq[int].genericHead will be just seq
  • seq[int].genericHead[float] will be seq[float]

A compile-time error will be produced if the supplied type is not generic.

See also:

Example:

type
  Functor[A] = concept f
    type MatchedGenericType = genericHead(typeof(f))
      # `f` will be a value of a type such as `Option[T]`
      # `MatchedGenericType` will become the `Option` type
  Source Edit
proc stripGenericParams(t: typedesc): typedesc {...}{.magic: "TypeTrait".}
This trait is similar to genericHead, but instead of producing error for non-generic types, it will just return them unmodified.   Source Edit
proc supportsCopyMem(t: typedesc): bool {...}{.magic: "TypeTrait".}

This trait returns true if the type t is safe to use for copyMem.

Other languages name a type like these blob.

  Source Edit
proc isNamedTuple(T: typedesc): bool {...}{.magic: "TypeTrait".}
Return true for named tuples, false for any other type.   Source Edit
proc distinctBase(T: typedesc): typedesc {...}{.magic: "TypeTrait".}
Returns base type for distinct types, works only for distinct types. compile time error otherwise   Source Edit
proc tupleLen(T: typedesc[tuple]): int {...}{.magic: "TypeTrait".}
Return number of elements of T   Source Edit

Templates

template distinctBase[T](a: T): untyped
overload for values

Example:

type MyInt = distinct int
doAssert 12.MyInt.distinctBase == 12
  Source Edit
template tupleLen(t: tuple): int
Return number of elements of t   Source Edit
template get(T: typedesc[tuple]; i: static int): untyped
Return ith element of T   Source Edit
template elementType(a: untyped): typedesc
return element type of a, which can be any iterable (over which you can iterate)

Example:

iterator myiter(n: int): auto =
  for i in 0..<n: yield i
doAssert elementType(@[1,2]) is int
doAssert elementType("asdf") is char
doAssert elementType(myiter(3)) is int
  Source Edit
template genericParams(T: typedesc): untyped
return tuple of generic params for generic T

Example:

type Foo[T1, T2] = object
doAssert genericParams(Foo[float, string]) is (float, string)
type Bar[N: static float, T] = object
doAssert genericParams(Bar[1.0, string]) is (StaticParam[1.0], string)
doAssert genericParams(Bar[1.0, string]).get(0).value == 1.0
doAssert genericParams(seq[Bar[2.0, string]]).get(0) is Bar[2.0, string]
var s: seq[Bar[3.0, string]]
doAssert genericParams(typeof(s)) is (Bar[3.0, string],)

# NOTE: For the builtin array type, the index generic param will
#       **always** become a range type after it's bound to a variable.
doAssert genericParams(array[10, int]) is (StaticParam[10], int)
var a: array[10, int]
doAssert genericParams(typeof(a)) is (range[0..9], int)
  Source Edit

Exports

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