Szathmáry László honlapja @ DEIK | DLang / String → list of chars

(1) string → list of chars

def main():
s = "görög"

chars = list(s)

# string -> list of chars
print(chars) # ['g', 'ö', 'r', 'ö', 'g']

# remove duplicated chars from a string
print(list(set(list(s)))) # ['r', 'ö', 'g']

import std.stdio;
import std.algorithm;
import std.conv;

void main()
{
string s = "görög";

auto a = s.dup;
writeln(a); // görög
writeln("a length: ", a.length); // 7

// string -> list of chars
auto b = s.dup.to!(dchar[]);
writeln(b); // görög
writeln("b length: ", b.length); // 5

// remove duplicated chars from a string
string result = s.dup
.to!(dchar[])
.sort
.uniq
.to!string;
writeln(result); // grö
}

Notes for D:

A string is UTF-8 encoded. The function dup() converts an immutable string to a mutable char array (char[]). However, this char array contains UTF-8 bytes, hence the length of a is 7 (7 bytes, since "ö" is represented on 2 bytes).
A char array can be converted to a dchar array (dchar[]). Now the length of b is 5. It has 5 elements, but now every element (every dchar) occupies 4 bytes. A dchar can hold any Unicode value.
A dchar array can now be sorted.