Allow concat 2 non-const strings?

[xzores]

How can I concat 2 non-const strings?
Do I really have to make a string builder?

And if so would this really be the best way?
a : strings.Builder = builder_none();
write_string(&a, "This is my string: ");
write_string(&a, My_other_non_const_string);

And how would i get a string from this?

Would i do this:
clone_from_bytes(a.buf[:])?

Why not allow me just to do this:
"This is my string: " + My_other_non_const_string

[z64]

@xzores You're looking for strings.concatenate

import "core:strings"
// ...
s := strings.concatenate({a, b, c})

[Kelimion]

One way:

a: strings.Builder
write_string(&a, "This is my string: ")
write_string(&a, My_other_non_const_string)
result := strings.to_string(a)

Another way:

buf := make([]u8, 500)
a := "This is my string: "
copy(buf, a)
copy(buf[len(a):], b)
result := string(buf[:len(a) + len(b)])

And there are other ways besides, like result := strings.concatenate({a, b, c}), as @z64 pointed out.

As for why not str := "This is my string: " + My_other_non_const_string. Because that is a monumentally bad idea.
Not only does + now mean more than 1 thing, it's now not just a concatenation instead of addition, it also makes an allocation for you.

Odin is a low-level language, not Python. Programs are more maintainable and understandable when the code does what you write, not a whole bunch in addition implicitly.

This explicitness (for sanity's sake) doesn't even inflate the line count compared to other low-level languages. A program ported to Odin from C often results in a third the number of lines.

[xzores]

Thanks you guys!

[z64]

@xzores I highly recommmend joining the Odin discord for quick questions like this, lots of helpful folk around: https://discord.gg/U8Rd2suP

Otherwise, there is also the Discussions page, which would be a better place for questions - https://github.com/odin-lang/Odin/discussions
Posts there can then be promoted to Issues when necessary.

Issues are usually reserved for bug reports.