Re: unordered_map with fwd-declared type

From:
"James Kanze" <james.kanze@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
8 Dec 2006 13:25:13 -0500
Message-ID:
<1165566253.991105.47900@l12g2000cwl.googlegroups.com>
David Osborn wrote:

Are containers with forward-declared contained types valid if they're
not actually instantiated?


You mean as in a typedef, something like:

     typedef std::vector< T > VectorT ;

where T is incomplete. If I understand correctly, this should
not trigger the instantiation of the template. (Implicit
instantiation occurs when the compiler needs a complete type for
the type.) And without an instantiation, there should be no
problem.

#include <list>
#include <map>
#include <tr1/unordered_map>

struct A
{
    std::list<A>::const_iterator iter1; // this works

Not with my compiler. It's undefined behavior, according to the
standard, and g++, with the necessary flags to ensure maximum
compliance, rejects it.

Declaring a member variable requires a complete type. So does
finding a type which is a member. So:

     typedef std::list<A> ListA ; // OK
     std::list<A> listA ; // undefined behavior
     typedef std::list<A>::iterator IterA ; // undefined behavior
     std::list<A>::iterator iterA ; // undefined behavior

     std::map<int, A>::const_iterator iter2; // and this works

Ditto.

     std::tr1::unordered_map<int, A>::const_iterator iter3; // shouldn't
this work?


I doubt it. I don't think that there's any exception for
unordered_map. (There are exceptions for some of the tr1
classes which have been adopted, such as shared_ptr.)

};


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