var.get

var get(const string key) const @safe

Safely get a field value, returning NULL if missing.

Unlike opIndex or opDispatch, this method does not auto-vivify (create) missing keys or assert on missing keys/non-object types. Instead, it returns var.init (NULL) when the key is missing or the var is not an object.

This enables safe, side-effect-free chained access patterns like: v.get("config").get("database").get("host") which returns NULL if any part of the path is missing, without modifying the original var.

Parameters

key The field name to access.

Returns

The value at the given field, or var.init (NULL) if:

The key does not exist in the object.
This var is not an object (e.g., NULL, array, scalar).

Examples

var config;
config["timeout"] = 30;
config["database"]["host"] = "localhost";

// Simple access
assert(config.get("timeout").as!int == 30);
assert(config.get("missing").isNull);

// Chained access - safe even if intermediate keys are missing
assert(config.get("database").get("host").as!string == "localhost");
assert(config.get("database").get("port").isNull);
assert(config.get("nonexistent").get("deep").get("path").isNull);

// Safe on non-objects
var num = 42;
assert(num.get("anything").isNull);

var get(TDefault)(const string key, TDefault defaultValue) const @safe

Get the value for key or return defaultValue if missing.

Does not modify the map when the key is missing.