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From: Robert A Duff <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com>
Subject: Re: Concatenation and Characters
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Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 16:13:43 GMT
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Date: 2002-10-22T16:13:43+00:00
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Fraser Wilson <newsfraser@blancolioni.org> writes:

> "David C. Hoos" <david.c.hoos.sr@ada95.com> writes:
> 
> > You can just write 
> >        return Array_Type (1 ..0);

Ummm.  No, you can't, actually.  "Array_Type (1 ..0)" is not an
expression, it's a subtype_mark.

However, you can write this:

    return (1..0 => 123);

if the component type is Integer, say.  This is annoying, because you
have to invent a completely junk value -- 123 is never used.

Or if you like to emphasize the type, you can use a qualified
expression:

    return Array_Type'(1..0 => 123);

It really is a language design flaw that you can't have a zero-length
positional aggregate.  String_literals don't have this flaw, so if the
component type happens to be a character type, you can say:

    return "";

> Thanks.  I'm glad there was a good reason I felt dense.  :)

;-)

- Bob