/reflect

🪞 Runtime reflection for V (vlang)

Primary LanguageVMIT LicenseMIT

elliotchance.reflect

Runtime reflection for V.

V does not carry runtime information about types. Although compile-time reflection is more performant it can be limiting in some cases that can't be avoided.

IMPORTANT: This project is more to demonstrate that a lot of the runtime reflection functionality one might need can be done without technically using runtime types. This implementation relies on static code being generated from compile-time reflection for known types going into the appropriate constructors.

Installation

v install elliotchance.reflect

Values

A Value can be created from any literal or simple value, for example:

import elliotchance.reflect

fn main() {
	v := reflect.value_of(1.23)

	println(v.typ)         // "f64"
	println(v.get_f64())   // 1.23
	println(v.get_int())   // V panic: value must be int but is f64
}

This becomes especially useful when dealing with arrays of mixed types:

// Only sum numbers.
fn sum(items []reflect.Value) f64 {
	mut total := 0.0

	for item in items {
		match item.typ.kind {
			.is_f64 { total += item.get_f64() }
			.is_int { total += item.get_int() }
			else { /* ignore */ }
		}
	}

	return total
}

fn main() {
	v := [
		reflect.value_of(1.23),
		reflect.value_of("hello"),
		reflect.value_of(7),
	]
	println(sum(v)) // 8.23
}

Types

All Values have a Type which can be accessed on the .typ field.

  • .kind: one of the Kind values: is_bool, is_string, is_i8, is_i16, is_int, is_i64, is_byte, is_u16, is_u32, is_u64, is_rune, is_f32, is_f64.
  • .elem: Only applies for arrays, describes the element type.
  • .str(): The string representation that matches the compile-time type in V.

Arrays

import elliotchance.reflect

fn main() {
	v := reflect.array_of([5, 6, 7])

	println(v.typ)                      // "[]int"
	println(v.typ.kind)                 // "array"
	println(v.typ.elem.kind)            // "int"
	println(v.len())                    // 3
	println(v.cap())                    // 3
	println(v.get_index(1).get_int())   // 6
	println(v.get_index(5))             // V panic: array index 5 is out of bounds (len = 3)
}

Maps

import elliotchance.reflect

fn main() {
	mut m := map[string]int{}
	m['a'] = 5
	m['b'] = 7
	m['c'] = 9

	v := reflect.map_of(m)

	println(v.typ)                                        // "map[string]int"
	println(v.typ.kind)                                   // "map"
	println(v.typ.key.kind)                               // "string"
	println(v.typ.elem.kind)                              // "int"
	println(v.len())                                      // 3
	println(v.keys())                                     // ['a', 'b', 'c']
	println(v.get_key(reflect.value_of('b')).get_int())   // 7
	println(v.get_key(reflect.value_of('d')))             // V panic: key not found: d
	println(v.get_key(reflect.value_of(123)))             // V panic: value must be string but is int
}

Structs

import elliotchance.reflect

struct Foo {
	a int
	b f64
	c string
}

fn main() {
	s := Foo{123, 4.56, 'hello'}
	v := reflect.struct_of(&s)

	println(v.typ)                    // "main.Foo"
	println(v.typ.kind)               // "struct"
	println(v.fields())               // ['a', 'b', 'c']
	println(v.field('b').typ)         // "f64"
	println(v.field('b').get_f64())   // 4.56
	println(v.field('d'))             // V panic: field not found: d

	v.field('b').set_string('hi')     // V panic: value must be f64 but is string

	v.field('c').set_string('hi')
	println(v.field('c').get_string()) // "hi"
	println(s.c)                       // "hi"
}