Re: MSVC++ 2005 Express Ed. build error when mixing boost lexical_cast and shared_ptr

From:
James Kanze <james.kanze@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:27:07 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID:
<28f6ea2e-9f3d-46b3-a973-a7e03ee4a123@y5g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>
On Nov 19, 8:14 pm, hsmit.h...@gmail.com wrote:

I came across a strange error and it's really been bugging me. Maybe
someone else has come across this and any insight would be
appreciated.

What I'm trying to accomplish is using boost::lexical_cast to cast a
vector of strings to a string.


I don't think it's possible, at least not with a standards
conformant compiler, which does dependent name lookup correctly.
(Strangely enough, it does compile with g++, although I can't
figure out how.) Unless I've misunderstood something
completely, boost::lexical_cast uses << and >> on the
instantiation types. The expression is dependent, so =A714.6.4
should apply.

I've found this to be the case in other constructs with g++, so
something else is occuring which I don't understand.

The compiler I'm using is MSVC++ 2005 Express Edition. The
gc++ compiler does not have the same complaint, this is
strictly a MSVC++ 2005 issue. I don't think it matters, but
I'm running on a WinXP 32 bit machine. I'm also using boost
v1.34.0.

Here's the code.

#include <boost/lexical_cast.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>

//--------------------------------------------------------------
template<class T>
std::ostream & operator<<(std::ostream& s, const std::vector<T> & d) {
  typedef typename std::vector<T>::const_iterator iter;
  iter it;
  for (it = d.begin() ; it != d.end() ; ++it) {
    s << *it;
    s << "\n";


Why not just:
    s << *it << '\n' ;
?

Or even replacing the entire loop by:

    std::copy( d.begin(), d.end(), std::ostream_iterator( s,
"\n" ) ) ;

  }
  return s;}


Normally, this function should not be found during dependent
name lookup, at least as I understand the standard.

//--------------------------------------------------------------
template<class T>
std::istream & operator>>(std::istream& s, std::vector<T> & d) {
  while (!s.eof()) {
    char buf[500];


Why not std::string?

    s.getline(buf, sizeof(buf));


You'd best check the success of the getline before using the
value read.

    d.push_back(buf);
  }


The standard idiom here is:

    std::string line ;
    while ( std::getline( s, line ) ) {
        d.push_back( line ) ;
    }

  return s;
}

This compiles quite nicely and even spits out the correct output.


Which is what I don't understand. As far as I can see, it
shouldn't compile.

Now for the problem:

If I change the include #includes at the top to:

#include <boost/lexical_cast.hpp>
#include <boost/shared_ptr.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>

I get the following compilation error (only the last few lines are
provided for clarity):

lexical_cast.hpp(150) : while compiling class template member function
'bool boost::detail::lexical_stream<Target,Source>::operator <<(const
Source &)'
with
[
    Target=std::string,
    Source=NewSource
]
lexical_cast.hpp(219) : see reference to class template instantiation
'boost::detail::lexical_stream<Target,Source>' being compiled
with
[
    Target=std::string,
    Source=NewSource
]
main.cpp(38) : see reference to function template instantiation
'Target boost::lexical_cast<std::string,std::vector<_Ty>>(const Source
&)' being compiled
with
[
    Target=std::string,
    _Ty=std::string,
    Source=std::vector<std::string>
]
lexical_cast.hpp(151) : error C2228: left of '.fail' must have class/
struct/union

Now, for a really stupid solution:

#include <boost/lexical_cast.hpp>
#include <boost/shared_ptr.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>

//--------------------------------------------------------------
// inheriting from an STL container - asking for trouble!
// But it does solve the compilation problem. WHY????


Because you then use a class defined in the global namespace.
Which means that the global namespace is drawn into ADL.

class stringvector : public std::vector<std::string> {

};

//--------------------------------------------------------------
template<class T>
std::ostream & operator<<(std::ostream& s, const std::vector<T> & d) {
  typedef typename std::vector<T>::const_iterator iter;
  iter it;
  for (it = d.begin() ; it != d.end() ; ++it) {
    s << *it;
    s << "\n";
  }
  return s;}

//--------------------------------------------------------------
template<class T>
std::istream & operator>>(std::istream& s, std::vector<T> & d) {
  while (!s.eof()) {
    char buf[500];
    s.getline(buf, sizeof(buf));
    d.push_back(buf);
  }
  return s;
}


This is tricky, of course. But basically, as some point, you
have a << or a >> with a ::stringvector as an argument. So ::
is pulled in, and the compiler finds the above functions.

This code compiles, but inheriting from an STL container is not my
idea...of a good idea...

So what's going on here?

There are basically 2 questions I have:
1) why does the boost/shared_ptr.hpp inclusion effect a
boost::lexical_cast<std::string, std::vector> declaration?


That I don't know. IMHO, without the inheritance, the code
should never compile.

2) How does inheriting from the std::vector class solve this problem?


Because you're now using a class declared in the global
namespace.

--
James Kanze (GABI Software) email:james.kanze@gmail.com
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