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From: Robert A Duff <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Ada and string literals
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:20:17 -0500
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Date: 2013-01-30T11:20:17-05:00
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Niklas Holsti <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid> writes:

> On 13-01-30 02:44 , codeallergy wrote:
>> hi comp.lang.ada, 
>> 
>> question from a newcomer: Why ada does not allow using a string
>> literal with access type ?
>>
>> abc : access string := "LITERAL"; -- error.
>
> Because, unlike C, Ada does not confuse arrays with pointers.
>
> This is the closest Ada equivalent:
>
>    Literal : aliased constant String := "LITERAL";
>    abc     : access constant String := Literal'Access;

That works, but this seems like a closer equivalent to me:

    Abc : access constant String := new String'("LITERAL");

Ada ought to allow:

    Abc : access constant String := "LITERAL"'Access;

with or without the "constant", as a shorthand for the above.

Suppose you want an array of strings.  Well, you can't have
one in Ada, except in the unusual case where they all happen
to have the same length.  So you use array of access to string.

    Colors : constant String_Sequence :=
        ("red"'Access, -- This is not Ada!
         "orange"'Access,
         "dark green"'Access,
         ...);

That gets pretty tedious if you declare a name for each color.

I'd allow arrays of Strings, though, but that's even less Ada-like.

- Bob