Steven Schveighoffer:

> Note that there *is* overhead, even if it's not significant.  I highly  
> recommend never to use [] and use null instead.

In Bugzilla I did ask for the opposite (but not on a performance basis) :-)

null is less specific than [] because a null is also used for pointers and 
references, while [] is only for empty associative arrays and empty dynamic 
arrays. An empty dynamic array is a 2-words struct, so representing its literal 
with just a null (that is a single word) looks misleading and doesn't help D 
novices remember what a dynamic array is. I have even suggested to use [:] as 
empty associative array literal in D.

Regarding the difference in [] and null performance, I think adding a small 
optimization to the front-end is a better solution to this little problem.

Bye,
bearophile

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