Re: stl::map: return default value without inserting a new element?

From:
Kai-Uwe Bux <jkherciueh@gmx.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:20:50 +0200
Message-ID:
<hpg532$snl$1@news.doubleSlash.org>
Leigh Johnston wrote:

"Keith H Duggar" <duggar@alum.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:601b47ca-0120-492b-ae63-b93967460491@x7g2000vbc.googlegroups.com...

On Apr 6, 6:46 am, Rui Maciel <rui.mac...@gmail.com> wrote:

In order to avoid wasting resources populating a map with
useless key:value pairs, is there a clean, unencumbered way
to get the value associated with a given key without being
forced to insert new elements or even resort to multiple
lines of code? The closest thing I saw was the map::find()
method, but I believe that ends up forcing to write code to
compare the given iterator to map::end() and, if it matches,
return a default value.

Is there a simpler way to do this?


I find these two functions (including their general semantics)
and variants of them exceedingly useful

template < class K, class V, class C, class A>
V
getOrZero (
  std::map<K,V,C,A> const & m
, K const & k
) {
  typename std::map<K,V,C,A>::const_iterator i = m.find(k) ;
  return i != m.end() ? i->second : V() ;
}

template < class K, class V, class C, class A>
V &
getOrMake (
  std::map<K,V,C,A> & m
, K const & k
) {
  return m[k] ;
}

for all types of containers including STL and custom ones.


These free functions can have their uses (they certainly save typing at
least) but I feel they may detract from good iterator based design.


I am always eager to see new design ideas, but I have some trouble picturing
an iterator to iterate over keys not in the table and providing default
values for their un-tabulated value. Could you please flesh out what you
have in mind?

Best

Kai-Uwe Bux

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