Re: want to pass vector<foo*> to fn expecting vector<const foo*>

From:
"Martin B." <0xCDCDCDCD@gmx.at>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Sat, 20 Apr 2013 23:24:15 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<kkv23j$m7d$1@dont-email.me>
On 20.04.2013 23:49, Jonathan Thornburg wrote:

Martin Ba <0xcdcdcdcd@gmx.at> wrote:

Maybe boost::ptr_vector or Boost Range can help?


Yes, boost::ptr_vector is a useful abstraction here. ...
... Or at least these would be possiblities if the real code the
pointers were *owning* pointers. But in my real code they're not --
they're "weak pointers" to objects which are NOT owned by the
std::vector... so it seems to me that raw C++ pointers are
appropriate.

Finally, note that the same problem I've described can apply to any
container, not just std::vector. In fact, in June 2011 we had a
discussion in this newsgroup about (what I would say is essentially)
this same issue applied to std::pair<int,int> vs std::pair<const
int,int>: ... ...

The consensus of replies to that posting was that no, the use of
reinterpret_cast<...> is NOT portable, and that at present there is
no good solution to this problem. :(


I had a try with Boost.Range and it would appear that it is able to
solve the problem via an `any_range`. Given that your original
example:
+ + + +
void print_vector_of_intervals(const std::vector</* const */ interval*>&
vci)
{
    for (int i = 0 ; i < static_cast<int>(vci.size()) ; ++i)
    {
    const interval* pI = vci.at(i);
    assert(pI != NULL);
    const interval& I = *pI;
    cout << "interval " << i << " = "
         << "[" << I.min() << ", " << I.max() << "]" << "\n";
    }
}
+ + + +
didn't really care what kind of sequence it got passed, I suggest the
following: (tested with VS2012 Express + boost 1.53):
+ + + +
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <boost/range.hpp>
#include <boost/range/any_range.hpp>

typedef std::vector<int*> VecT;
typedef std::vector<const int*> CVecT;
typedef boost::any_range<const int*,
                           boost::forward_traversal_tag,
                           const int*,
                           std::ptrdiff_t> IntCPtrRange;

void fn(IntCPtrRange const& r) {
    for(const int* ptr : r) {
      int val = *ptr;
      std::cout << "Val: " << val << "\n";
    }
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    using namespace std;

    VecT vec;
    // Note: Toy example. Don't care 'bout leaks ...
    vec.push_back(new int(42));
    vec.push_back(new int(23));
    CVecT cvec(begin(vec), end(vec));
    // Can pass vector of non-const pointer to any_range
    // that uses const-ptr:
    fn(vec);
    // vec<const T> works as well:
    fn(cvec);
    return 0;
}
+ + + +

Seems to work fine.

cheers,
Martin

--
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