Compile Time Function Evaluation (CTFE)

Remarks#

CTFE is a mechanism which allows the compiler to execute functions at compile time. There is no special set of the D language necessary to use this feature - whenever a function just depends on compile time known values the D compiler might decide to interpret it during compilation.

You can also play interactively with CTFE.

Evaluate a function at compile-time

long fib(long n)
{
    return n < 2 ? n : fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2);
}

struct FibStruct(int n) { // Remarks: n is a template
    ubyte[fib(n)] data;
}

void main()
{
    import std.stdio : writeln;
    enum f10 = fib(10); // execute the function at compile-time
    pragma(msg, f10); // will print 55 during compile-time
    writeln(f10); // print 55 during runtime
    pragma(msg, FibStruct!11.sizeof); // The size of the struct is 89
}