Re: Call a member function only if it exists

From:
Michael Aaron Safyan <michaelsafyan@aim.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Wed, 2 Jan 2008 11:40:17 CST
Message-ID:
<flenp7$c60$1@aioe.org>
Jens Breitbart wrote:

Hi,

I wrote a framework, which uses callback functions. Currently all
classes used with the framework have to implement the callback
function. I would like to define a default behavior for all classes,
that do not implement the function. I am aware that this could easily
be done, by defining a base class and require that all classes used
with the framework inherit for this base class, but I would prefer to
do this without inheritance. The code I have in mind looks similar to
the one below, but I failed to write the caller template.

void f () {
    // default behavior
}

struct A {
    void f () {
        // special behavior for objects of type A
    }
};

struct B {
};

int main () {
    A a;
    B b;

    //caller<A>::f(a); // should call a.f()
    //caller<B>::f(b); // should call f()

    return 0;
}

Any suggestion how to solve the problem would be highly appreciated.


#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

void f(){ std::cout<<"Global!"<<std::endl; }

struct A
{
      void f()const{ std::cout<<"Local!"<<std::endl; }
};

struct B
{

};

// Helpers for detecting the signature of f
template<typename T, void (T::*)()const >
class signature_f_1
{
  public:
  typedef T type;
};

template<typename T1, typename T2>
class signature_f_2
{
  public:
  static const bool value = false;
};

template<typename T>
class signature_f_2<T, typename signature_f_1<T, &T::f>::type >
{
  public:
  static const bool value = true;
};

template<typename T>
class signature_f
{
  public:
  static const bool value = signature_f_2<T,T>::value;
};

// Helpers for performing the function call
template<typename T, bool HAS_FUNCTION_F> class caller_;

template<typename T> class caller_<T,true>
{
  public:
  static void f(const T& obj) { obj.f(); }
};

template<typename T> class caller_<T,false>
{
  public:
  static void f(const T& obj){ ::f(); }
};

// Caller implementation
template<typename T> class caller
{
  public:
  static void f(const T& obj){
                         caller_<T, signature_f<T>::value >::f(obj);
          }
};

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
      A a;
      B b;
      caller<A>::f(a);
      caller<B>::f(b);
      return 0;
}

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