Re: How to avoid complex switches?

From:
"Leigh Johnston" <leigh@i42.co.uk>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:03:32 +0100
Message-ID:
<KdOdnbiFlfxkBDLWnZ2dnUVZ7tGdnZ2d@giganews.com>
"none" <""mort\"@(none)"> wrote in message
news:4baf9959$0$280$14726298@news.sunsite.dk...

Leigh Johnston wrote:

"none" <""mort\"@(none)"> wrote in message
news:4baf92d8$0$274$14726298@news.sunsite.dk...

I have a class that takes a few template parameters:

template<typename A, typename B, typename C,typename D>
class MyClass {
// ...
};

The types A,B,C and D are selected from a user specified input file
(properties file):

A = 1
B = 2
C = 1
D = 3

I then parse this file an need to create MyClass with the correct types:

void createMyClass (int a, int b, int c, int d) {

    switch ( a ) {
      case 1 :
        typedef test::Green ColorType;
        switch ( b ) {
          case 1 :
            typedef test::Water MediumType;
            switch ( c ) {
              case 1 :
                typedef test::Linear InterpolationType;
                MyClass<ColorTyper, MediumType, InterpolationType >
myClass;
                break;
              case 2 :
                typedef test::Cubic InterpolationType;
                MyClass<ColorTyper, MediumType, InterpolationType >
myClass;
                break;
              default :
            }
            break;
          case 2 :
            // ....

            break;
          default :
        }
        break;
      case 2 :
        typedef test::Blue ColorType;
        switch ( b ) {
          case 1 :
            typedef test::Water MediumType;
            switch ( c ) {
              case 1 :
                typedef test::Linear InterpolationType;
                MyClass<ColorTyper, MediumType, InterpolationType >
myClass;
                break;
              case 2 :
                typedef test::Cubic InterpolationType;
                MyClass<ColorTyper, MediumType, InterpolationType >
myClass;
                break;
              default :
            }
            break;
          case 2 :

            break;
          default :
        }

        break;
      default :

    }

}

But this switch grows extremely large when the number of choices for
each type grows and is also very ugly/error prone. It could be nice if
it was possible to do something like this instead:

T getAType(int a) {
  switch ( a ) {
    case 1 :
      typedef test::Green ColorType;
      break;
    case 2 :
      typedef test::Blue ColorType;
      break;
    default :
  }
  return ColorType;
}

T getBType(int b) {
  switch ( b ) {
    case 1 :
      typedef test::Water MediumType;
      break;
    case 2 :
      typedef test::Rock MediumType;
      break;
    default :
  }
  return MediumType;
}

int main(){

 typedef getAType(1) ColorType;
 typedef getBType(2) MediumType;
 ...

 MyClass<ColorType, MediumType, ...>
}

But this is not supported in C++. Any ideas on how to solve this
combinatorics problem?


I don't think you can really avoid a using switch for this type of thing
but type lists (Modern C++ Design) might make the switch code less ugly.
Personally I would just stick with the switch and perhaps use macros.
You have hit the age old compiler vs runtime problem, perhaps you would
be better off using a language which supports reflection? :)

/Leigh


Arg! Assume I have 4 variables which can have 4 values each then I need to
hardcode 4??? = 256 cases in a monster switch!

This seems as a very basic type of functionality. Many programs gives the
user an option of selecting different values for a set of different
variables.


The problem is the variable's value is only known at runtime whilst the
template argument must be known at compile time leading to an intractable
problem. Answer: don't use templates for this; use polymorphism perhaps
instead.

/Leigh

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