Re: Why does stringof not like functions with arguments?

[Meta via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Wednesday, 9 August 2017 at 01:39:07 UTC, Jason Brady wrote:
Why does the following code error out with:
app.d(12,10): Error: function app.FunctionWithArguments (uint 
i) is not callable using argument types ()

Code:

import std.stdio;

void FunctionWithoutArguments() {
}

void FunctionWithArguments(uint i) {
}

void main()
{
        writeln(FunctionWithoutArguments.stringof);
        writeln(FunctionWithArguments.stringof);
}

Welcome to optional parentheses hell. Please enjoy your stay.

Because function calls in D can optionally omit the parens, 
`FunctionWithArguments.stringof` is actually attempting to call 
`FunctionWithArguments` without any arguments, and then call 
`stringof` on the result. In other words, it's actually trying to 
do this:

writeln(FunctionWithArguments().stringof);

And the D compiler is rightly telling you that you can't call the 
function with no arguments. The easiest solution is to use 
__traits(identifier) instead:

writeln(__traits(identifier, FunctionWithArguments));

You can make a handy template helper to do this for you:

enum stringOf(alias symbol) = __traits(identifier, symbol);
writeln(stringOf!FunctionWithArguments);