3.7.2 Operations of Discriminated Types

Implementation Note: {AI05-0214-1} This attribute is primarily used on parameters, to determine whether the discriminants can be changed as part of an assignment. The Constrained attribute is statically True for in parameters. For in out and out parameters of a discriminated type, the value of this attribute needs to be passed as an implicit parameter, in general. However, if the type is tagged or does not have defaults for its discriminants, the attribute is statically True, so no implicit parameter is needed. Parameters of a limited untagged type with defaulted discriminants need this implicit parameter, unless there are no nonlimited views, because they might be passed to a subprogram whose body has visibility on a nonlimited view of the type, and hence might be able to assign to the object and change its discriminants. 

Reason: {AI05-0214-1} {AI12-0005-1} All tagged objects are known to be constrained (as nonlimited tagged types cannot have discriminant defaults, and limited tagged objects are immutably limited), and are always considered constrained by this attribute to avoid distributed overhead for parameters of limited class-wide types, as limited tagged objects may technically be unconstrained if they use defaulted discriminants. Such objects still cannot have their discriminants changed, as assignment is not supported for them, so there is no use for this attribute that would justify the overhead of passing it with all class-wide parameters. 

Discussion: {AI05-0005-1} {AI05-0214-1} If the type of A is a type derived from an untagged partial view of a tagged type such that it is not a tagged type, then A is not considered a tagged object, and A'Constrained can return either True or False depending on the nature of the object. 

Ramification: This rule applies to assignment_statements, calls (except when the discriminant-dependent subcomponent is an in parameter passed by copy), indexed_components, and slices. Ada 83 only covered the first two cases. AI83-00585 pointed out the situation with the last two cases. The cases of object_renaming_declarations and generic formal in out objects are handled differently, by disallowing the situation at compile time. 

For consistency with other attributes, we are allowing the prefix of Constrained to be a value as well as an object of a discriminated type, and also an implicit dereference. These extensions are not important capabilities, but there seems no reason to make this attribute different from other similar attributes. We are curious what most Ada 83 compilers do with F(1).X'Constrained.

We now handle in a general way the cases of erroneousness identified by AI83-00585, where the prefix of an indexed_component or slice is discriminant-dependent, and the evaluation of the index or discrete range changes the value of a discriminant. 

We have moved all discussion of erroneous use of names that denote discriminant-dependent subcomponents to this subclause. In Ada 83, it used to appear separately under assignment_statements and subprogram calls. 

{AI05-0214-1} A'Constrained is now defined to return True for any A that is a tagged object. This doesn't change the result for any A allowed by previous versions of Ada; the change is necessary to avoid unnecessary overhead for limited tagged parameters.