Inherit constructors from bases in parameter pack - c++11

In C++11 it is possible to "inherit constructors":
struct A{ };
struct B : A{
using A::A;
};
Under certain circumstances (see discussions below) it is also possible to multiple inherit constructors.
struct D : A, B, C{
using A::A;
using B::B;
using C::C;
};
Finally, It is also possible to inherit generically from all the types in a parameter pack:
template<class... Ts>
struct D2 : Ts...{};
The question: Is it possible to inherit all the constructors of the base classes generically? Like this:
template<class... Ts>
struct D2 : Ts...{
using Ts::Ts...; // ??? compiler error
};
such that struct D2<A, B, C> is equivalent with struct D above.

The usual (not very pretty) workaround is recursion:
template<class... Ts>
struct D { };
template<class T, class... Ts>
struct D<T, Ts...>: T, D<Ts...>{
using D<Ts...>::D;
using T::T;
};
Demo.
Note that under the current specification for inheriting constructors, this is not strictly equivalent to the
struct D : A, B, C{
using A::A;
using B::B;
using C::C;
};
version, and may be inefficient if a constructor argument is passed by value, because the chain of inheriting constructor calls requires multiple moves (which might degenerate to copies for legacy types). Demo.
The paper N4429 addresses this and a number of other issues related to inheriting constructors, and has passed EWG review at Lenexa.

No, such a thing is not possible. There is a list of contexts in which pack expansion is allowed to occur, and a using-declaration is not one of them.
A mem-initializer-list is an allowed context though, so you could do something like:
struct A { A(int ) { } };
struct B { B(int ) { } };
template <typename... Ts >
struct D : Ts... {
template <typename... Args>
D(Args&&... args) : Ts(std::forward<Args>(args)...)... { }
};
int main() {
D<A, B> d(4);
}
The above actually fails to compile in gcc 5.2 though (bug 65422).

Related

Store parameter pack as tuple references

I am trying to store the parameter pack of lvalue references of a variadic template for later use.
I have the following working for now.
template <typename... Ts>
class Foo {
private:
std::tuple<Ts...> m_args;
public:
template<typename... Args>
Foo(Args&&... args) : m_args(std::make_tuple(std::forward<Args>(args)...))
{
}
};
int main() {
int x = 10;
int y = 20;
Foo<int, int> foo(x, y);
}
However, I would like to store the parameter pack as a reference so that I can access the same object later.
I am not sure how I can do that. Any help would be appreciated.
The best I can imagine, is the use of std::forward_as_tuple.
Unfortunately I don't see a way to use it with perfect forwarding: if you want register values in a tuple inside a class, you have to decide the type of the tuple one time for all.
The best I can imagine is a tuple of const references; something as follows
template <typename ... Ts>
class Foo
{
private:
std::tuple<Ts const & ...> m_args;
public:
Foo (Ts const & ... as) : m_args{std::forward_as_tuple(as...)}
{ }
};
I hope isn't necessary remember you how dangling references can be dangerous for a solution based on a tuple of references.

How to make a particular constructor on a tempate type available only for a particular specialization in C++11?

I have a C++11 template that can be specialized with an arbitrary type parameter.
template<class ElementType>
class Foo
How do I declare a constructor that appears for the compiler's consideration only when ElementType is e.g. const uint8_t?
That is, I have a bunch of constructors that are generic over any ElementType, but I also want to have constructors that are only considered when ElementType is specialized in a particular way. (Allowing those constructors to be selected for other types would be unsafe.)
So far std::enable_if examples that I've found have been conditional on the types of the arguments of the constructors.
template<class ElementType>
struct Foo
{
template <typename T = ElementType>
Foo(typename std::enable_if<!std::is_same<T, const uint8_t>{}>::type* = nullptr) {}
template <typename T = ElementType>
Foo(typename std::enable_if<std::is_same<T, const uint8_t>{}>::type* = nullptr) {}
};
int main()
{
Foo<int> a{}; // ok, calls first constructor
Foo<const uint8_t> b{}; // ok, calls second constructor
}
wandbox example
You can break the class into two classes. The derived class' purpose is to be able to specialize constructors for different types. E.g.:
#include <cstdio>
#include <cstdint>
template<class ElementType>
struct Foo_
{
Foo_() { std::printf("%s\n", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__); }
};
template<class ElementType>
struct Foo : Foo_<ElementType>
{
using Foo_<ElementType>::Foo_; // Generic version.
};
template<>
struct Foo<uint8_t> : Foo_<uint8_t>
{
Foo() { std::printf("%s\n", __PRETTY_FUNCTION__); } // Specialization for uint8_t.
};
int main(int ac, char**) {
Foo<int8_t> a;
Foo<uint8_t> b;
}
The benefit of using the derived class here compared to enable_if is that:
The class can be partially specialized.
Only one specialization of the class is chosen for particular template parameters, rather than a set of constructors. When adding specializations for new types the existing enable_if expressions may need to be changed to make them more restrictive to avoid function overload set resolution ambiguity.

How can I "ostensibly-but-not-really" break the one-definition-rule with enable_if and SFINAE?

I want to define template <typename T> struct is_non_negative in one way for integral T's and another way for floating-point T's. Here's what I did:
template<typename T>
struct is_non_negative: public curry_right_hand_side<greater_equal<
typename std::enable_if<std::is_integral<T>::value, T>::type>, constant<T, 0>> { };
template<typename T>
struct is_non_negative: public curry_right_hand_side<greater_equal<
typename std::enable_if<std::is_floating_point<T>::value, T>::type>, constant_by_ratio<T, std::ratio<0,1>>> { };
This triggers a compiler error (GCC 4.9.3, -std=c++11):
error: class template "cuda::is_non_negative" has already been defined
and, well, it has, but it also hasn't, since the template instantiations are distinct.
How can I achieve this effect and actually get my code to compile?
Notes:
Never mind how I defined constant, constant_by_ratio and curry_right_hand_side - they have been tested and work.
If I replace the second is_non_negative with foo then this compiles and is usable - but not with the same identifier.
The motivation for the two definitions here is the impossibility of using floating-point values as template parameters, but please don't focus on that aspect of the example.
Maybe you could do something like this:
template<class T, class = void>
struct is_non_negative;
template<typename T>
struct is_non_negative<T, typename std::enable_if<std::is_integral<T>::value>::type>: public curry_right_hand_side<greater_equal<T>, constant<T, 0>> { };
template<typename T>
struct is_non_negative<T, typename std::enable_if<std::is_floating_point<T>::value>::type>: public curry_right_hand_side<greater_equal<T>, constant_by_ratio<T, std::ratio<0,1>>> { };

Possible to write the code once for a specific set of different types?

I have a template class TC who's constructor takes parameters who's values are dependent on, as well as being of type Tn.
So, I want to create a helper template function htf that will call the same functions of a Tn object to generate a TC for a set of types X0 to Xn. The helper function takes only one parameter from that set. Is it possible, perhaps with variadic templates, to write the function once for the set of types, instead of having to write the same function over and over again for each type?
Now, I could just use a template to allow all types, but I don't want that as there may be another function with the same name written for a specific type later that's not based on this TC. And, IIRC I think SFINAE works with member functions, not pure functions.
This is just an idea in my head at the moment, that's why the question is very general. However, here is roughly the code I'm thinking of, simplified, in an more concrete and in an over generalized fashion:
struct X0
{
int value;
int& fn() { return value; }
};
struct X1
{
double value;
double& fn() { return value; }
};
struct X2
{
float value;
float& fn() { return value; }
};
struct Y0 // don't accept this class in helper function
{
int value;
int& fn() { return value; }
};
template<typename T1, typename Tn>
class TC
{
T1* m_pT1;
Tn* m_pTn;
TC(T1* pT1, Tn* pTn) : m_pT1(pT1), m_pTn(pTn) {}
friend TC htf(Tn& tn);
public:
~TC() {}
};
// concrete functions:
TC<int, X0> htf(C0& x) { return TC<int, X0>(&x.fn(), &x); }
TC<double, X1> htf(C1& x) { return TC<double, X1>(&x.fn(), &x); }
TC<float, X2> htf(C2& x) { return TC<float, X2>(&x.fn(), &x); }
// or in an over generalized template function but it'll accept
// Y0 and others which I don't want:
template<typename X>
auto htf(X& x) -> TC<decltype(x.fn()), X>
{
return TC<decltype(x.fn()), X>(&x.fn(), &x);
}
So the htf function that I want is to work for classes X0, X1, and X2, but not Y0. However, I don't want it to interfere with any other function called htf that takes a parameter of type Y0, or any other type for that matter.
Additional
Is it possible to make it so that the collection of accepted classes can also include template classes taking an specified (or unspecified) number of parameters?
Write a function that is only enabled when a trait is true, then specialize it for all the desired types.
template<typename T>
struct enable_htf : std::false_type { };
template<>
struct enable_htf<X0> : std::true_type { };
template<>
struct enable_htf<X1> : std::true_type { };
// etc.
template<typename T, bool enable = enable_htf<T>::value>
struct htf_helper { };
template<typename T>
struct htf_helper<T, true>
{
using type = TC<decltype(std::declval<T&>().fn()), T>;
};
template<typename X>
typename htf_helper<X>::type
htf(X& x)
{
return { &x.fn(), &x };
}
But it seems you want something like this instead:
template<typename Needle, typename... Haystack>
struct is_one_of;
template<typename Needle, typename Head, typename... Tail>
struct is_one_of<Needle, Head, Tail...>
: conditional<is_same<Needle, Head>::value, true_type,
is_one_of<Needle, Tail...>>::type
{ };
template<typename Needle>
struct is_one_of<Needle> : false_type
{ };
template<typename X,
typename Requires = typename enable_if<is_one_of<X, X0, X1, X2>::value>::type>
auto
htf(X& x) -> TC<decltype(x.fn()), X>
{
return { &x.fn(), &x };
}
But personally I don't consider that clearer, even if is_one_of is reusable elsewhere.
This is an even more simplified version of my original question, but it relates to enabling a template function based on the type passed to it being part of a list of accepted types.
class A{};
class B{};
class C{};
class D{};
class collection1 : A, B, C {};
class collection2 : D {};
template<typename X>
typename std::enable_if<std::is_base_of<X, collection1>::value, X>::type fn(X x)
{
return X();
}
Then the following would work appropriately:
fn(A()); // works
fn(B()); // works
fn(C()); // works
fn(D()); // compile time failure
Having a 2nd function like this:
template<typename X>
typename std::enable_if<std::is_base_of<X, collection2>::value, X>::type fn(X x)
{
return X();
}
Would result in:
fn(A()); // works
fn(B()); // works
fn(C()); // works
fn(D()); // works
Using this method, I can enable function fn to work with types I want and not others and I can write the list with ease. Also, this should be faster than iterating through a list of variadic template parameters.
Thanks Jonathan Wakely, you helped a lot in my thought process. I just thought that this is simpler and can be made even clearer if I use a helper template which would encapsulate the enable_if clause which would be good as I have many other functions that would require this.
Additional
Looks like this answer isn't good enough as I need to be able to determine if a template class is in the collection I'm looking for.

Does/would c++11/14 support something like vector<auto>

I am wondering if c++11/c++14 would/already support something like vector<auto>?
If not, Is there any reason?
It's not supported directly, and not immediately clear exactly what you want it to do.
Comments have already mentioned a couple of possibilities (such as Boost any and variant classes) for creating heterogeneous collections. I hope this isn't what you were after, because heterogeneous collections fit poorly with C++ so using them is ugly and clumsy. I suppose there are cases/situations where these really would be the best choices available, but at least in my experience, those cases are fairly rare.
Another possible interpretation of what you might want would be a vector that (like auto in general) holds exactly one type, but that type is deduced from the initializer, so if you initialized the vector from some ints, you'd get a vector<int>, and if you initialized it from some strings, you'd get a vector<string>, and so on. Although the language doesn't support that directly, it is pretty easy to simulate it to at least some degree. Template classes can't/don't ever deduce template parameters, but template functions do/can. Therefore, we can create a tiny function template to take some initializers, deduce their type, and return a vector of that type. For example:
template <class T>
std::vector<T> make_vector(std::initializer_list<T> init) {
return std::vector<T>(init);
}
This returns a vector<T> (with T deduced from the type of data in the initializer list), so you can do things like:
auto a = make_vector({ 1, 2, 3, 4 }); // a -> vector<int>
auto b = make_vector({ 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 }); // b -> vector<double>
auto c = make_vector({ "1"s, "2"s, "3"s }); // c -> vector<std::string>
That last one requires a user-defined literal operator that's new in C++14 (which many compilers don't yet support). The rest should be fine with C++11.
There has also been some discussion (and a proposal in N3602) of adding a capability (perhaps to C++17) where you'd be able to define something like the make_vector above, but as something like a templated constructor for the class. This would let you use argument deduction on the constructor to deduce the template parameter for the class as a whole, so you'd be able to do something like:
X x(1); // deduces as X<int>
X x(2.0) // deduces as X<double>
Warning though: this has been proposed but not accepted. It may (easily) never be accepted--and even if it is, it may be altered significantly before that happens.
No, not in C++11 or C++14, which are already finished and published.
But it's possible that vector<auto> and similar things like tuple<auto...> will be in C++17 as part of the Concepts work.
It follows quite naturally from the fact that std::vector<T> can be used in function templates and class template partial specializations where T is a template parameter, and also from the fact that polymorphic lambdas allow auto as a function parameter type (which is shorthand for a function template with deduced parameters).
The Concepts TS allows a "generic function" to be declared like:
auto func(auto arg);
Since you can have a function template like this:
template<typename T>
auto func(std::vector<T> v);
it makes sense to extend the generic function syntax to allow:
auto func(std::vector<auto> v);
and once you allow that in a function declaration, it should also be possible to allow it in variable declarations:
std::vector<auto> v = function_returning_vector_of_something();
The reason it isn't in C++11 is that auto was new, and it would have been too ambitious to try and make it do too much. In C++14 polymorphic lambdas were new, and again, expanding the uses of auto any further would have been ambitious.
For C++17 we have more experience with using auto in real code, and compiler writers are familiar with implementing it and know what is possible without too much effort.
A boost::any can store an instance of any type that can be copied, which is a lot of types.
In order to get the data out of your any, you have to know the exact type you stored in it.
Writing a simple any isn't hard:
#include <memory>
#include <utility>
struct any_internal {
virtual any_internal* clone() const = 0;
virtual ~any_internal() {};
};
template<class T>
struct any_details;
class any {
std::unique_ptr<any_internal> internal;
public:
any() = default;
any( any && ) = default;
any( any const&& o):any(o) {}
any( any & o ):any( const_cast<any const&>(o) ) {}
any& operator=( any && ) = default;
any& operator=( any const&& o ) { return this->operator=( o ); };
any& operator=( any & o ) { return this->operator=( const_cast<any const&>(o) ); };
any( any const& o ):internal( o.internal?o.internal->clone():nullptr ) {}
any& operator=( any const& o ) {
any tmp(o);
using std::swap;
swap( internal, tmp.internal );
return *this;
}
template<class U>
void reset( U&& o );
template<class U, class... Args>
void emplace( Args&&... args );
template<class U>
any( U&& o );
template<class U>
any& operator=(U&& o);
template<class T> T* get();
template<class T> T const* get() const;
template<class T> T* fast_get();
template<class T> T const* fast_get() const;
explicit operator bool() const { return internal!=nullptr; }
};
template<class T>
struct any_details : any_internal {
T t;
template<class...Args>
any_details( Args&&... args ):t(std::forward<Args>(args)...) {}
any_internal* clone() const override { return new any_details<T>{t}; }
};
template<class U, class... Args>
void any::emplace( Args&&... args ) {
internal.reset( new any_details<U>( std::forward<Args>(args)... ) );
}
template<class U>
void any::reset( U&& o ) {
emplace<typename std::decay<U>::type>( std::forward<U>(o) );
}
template<class U>
any::any( U&& o ) {
reset( std::forward<U>(o) );
}
template<class U>
any& any::operator=(U&& o) {
reset( std::forward<U>(o) );
return *this;
}
template<class T> T* any::get() {
auto* r = dynamic_cast< any_details<T>* >( internal.get() );
if (r) return &r->t;
return nullptr;
}
template<class T> T const* any::get() const {
auto* r = dynamic_cast< any_details<T>* >( internal.get() );
if (r) return &r->t;
return nullptr;
}
template<class T> T* any::fast_get() {
auto* r = static_cast< any_details<T>* >( internal.get() );
if (r) return &r->t;
return nullptr;
}
template<class T> T const* any::fast_get() const {
auto* r = static_cast< any_details<T>* >( internal.get() );
if (r) return &r->t;
return nullptr;
}
and a std::vector<any> behaves much like you might want a std::vector<auto> to do.
Increased efficiency can be achieved via small buffer optimizations (ie, store the T within the any if the t is small, instead of using the heap).
You'd probably also want to split get from fast_get, where get does a dynamic_cast and fast_get does a static_cast, again for efficiency. (When you know for certain, you can fast_get)
Basically this is a gussied up void*.

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