Re: Heterogeneous collection: return type overload

From:
jrbcast <jrbcast@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:01:06 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID:
<ba435613-d7f2-40fd-9b69-5ea799f10071@e1g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>
On Feb 18, 9:53 pm, "Leigh Johnston" <le...@i42.co.uk> wrote:

"jrbcast" <jrbc...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:866a2791-2934-41a3-ba19-6721111f887a@u9g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...

On Feb 18, 9:04 pm, James Kanze <james.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Feb 18, 6:50 am, jrbcast <jrbc...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Feb 17, 7:59 pm, "Leigh Johnston" <le...@i42.co.uk> wrote:

"jrbcast" <jrbc...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ae30bbcc-2fea-413d-9696-ad036be5d29d@f15g2000yqe.googlegroups.=

com...

Imagine I have something like this:
class Collection
{
std::map<char *, void *> elements;


Using a char* as a key in a map is probably not a very good
idea.


Yes, I realized about that after posting ;-), I am now using
std::string

Collection();

Try "std::map<std::string, boost::any> elements;" instead.

Thanks for your responses. Now it is clear that C++ does not
support function overloading on return types :-(.


Not directly, but it's fairly simple to get the same effect by
means of a proxy:

    class Collection
    {
    public:
        class Proxy
        {
            Collection const* owner;
            std::string key;
        public:
            Proxy(Collection const& owner, std::string con=

st& key)

                : owner(&owner)
                , key(key)
            {
            }
            template< typename T > operator T() const
            {
                return owner->... // whatever it=

 takes to get

                                  =

 // the correctly typed value

            }
        }
        Proxy get(std::string const& key) const
        {
            return Proxy(*this, key);
        }
        // ...
    };


I am afraid I am not able to follow the code (too hard for me and my
usual needs). Can you point me to some book/web... where to learn such
special things?

Cheers


Which bit(s) don't you understand?

/Leigh


Thank you very much, I did not realize that "proxy" was the key word
to google it :-S. Sorry, too late here after work (Spain = 21:54).

I can not imagine how this proxy hides types management in a
heterogeneous structure like that I am proposing here std::map<
std::string, void *> so the caller does not need to explicitly pass
the type it is expecting, just receive it (the called object will care
about that)...

I have written something like this but I would like (if possible) to
know if there is a more "advanced" or "correct" way to do that:

// PLEASE NOTE CODE HAS NOT BEEN COMPILED YET AND MAY BE ERRONEOUS

#define angle_t double

#define rot(object) *((angle_t*)(object.getValue(std::string("rot"))))
#define tilt(object) *((angle_t*)
(object.getValue(std::string("tilt"))))
#define psi(object) *((angle_t*)(object.getValue(std::string("psi"))))

class objectValues
{
    std::map<std::string, void *> values;
    objectValues();
    ~objectValues();

    int addValue( std::string name, int value )
    {
        void * newValue = (void *)(new int(value));
        return insertVoidPtr( name, newValue );
    }

    int addValue( std::string name, double value )
    {
        void * newValue = (void *)(new double(value));
        return insertVoidPtr( name, newValue );
    }

    int insertVoidPtr( std::string name, void * value )
    {
        // Return value for "insert" call
        pair<map<std::string, void *>::iterator,bool> ret;

   ret = values.insert( pair<std::string, void*>(name,value) );

        if (ret.second==false)
        {
            return -1;
        }
        else
        {
            return 0;
        }
    }

    void * getValue( std::string name )
    {
        map <std::string, *void>::const_iterator element;

    element = values.find( name );

    if ( element == values.end( ) )
        {
            return NULL;
        }
        else
        {
            return element->second;
        }
    }

    bool valueExists( std::string name )
    {
        map <std::string, *void>::const_iterator element;

    element = values.find( name );

    if ( element == values.end( ) )
        {
            return false;
        }
        else
        {
            return true;
        }
    }

    void deleteValue( std::string name )
    {
        map <std::string, *void>::const_iterator element;

    element = values.find( name );

    if ( element != values.end( ) )
        {
            values.erase( element );
        }
    }
}

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