Re: determine if a type is a free function pointer

From:
Kai-Uwe Bux <jkherciueh@gmx.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:39:17 -0700
Message-ID:
<fcekhc$bji$1@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Fei Liu wrote:

Kai-Uwe Bux wrote:

Barry wrote:

Kai-Uwe Bux wrote:

[many lines]

Good job,

boost.is_function seems to do hard coding to meet possible function
argument list length.


Makes me wonder whether there is a bug in my code. I wouldn't be
surprised.
 

though is_function checks function not pointer to function.
with a wrapper this should also work with function check.

template <class T>
struct is_function
{
     static const bool value = is_function_pointer<T*>::value;
};

   SHOW_BOOL( is_function<int(int)>::value );
   SHOW_BOOL( is_function<int(int, int)>::value );
   SHOW_BOOL( is_function<int(*)(int)>::value );
   SHOW_BOOL( is_function<int(*)(int, int)>::value );


I actually think that the code needs some cleanup and that testing for
being a function is simpler than testing for being a function pointer.
So, I changed it the other way around. Here are the versions I added to
my library:

// is_class_type
// =============

  template < typename T >
  class is_class_type {

    typedef char (&yes) [1];
    typedef char (&no) [2];

    template < typename S >
    static yes check ( int S::* );

    template < typename S >
    static no check ( ... );

  public:

    static bool const value = ( sizeof( check<T>( 0 ) ) == sizeof(yes) );

  }; // is_class_type

// is_pointer_type:
// ================

  struct unused_type {};

  template < typename T >
  struct is_pointer_type {
    
    static const bool value = false;
    
    typedef unused_type pointee_type;
    
  };
  
  template < typename T >
  struct is_pointer_type<T*> {
    
    static const bool value = true;
    
    typedef T pointee_type;
    
  };
  

// is_function_type
// ================

  template < typename T >
  class is_function_type {
    
    typedef char (&no) [1];
    typedef char (&yes) [2];
    
    template < typename S >
    static
    yes check ( S * );
    
    template < typename S >
    static
    no check ( ... );
    
  public:
    
    static bool const value =
      ( ! is_class_type<T>::value )
      &&
      ( sizeof( check<T>( * (T*)(0) ) )== sizeof( yes ) );


This statement is slightly confusing to me. So you convert the function
to function pointer, convert 0 to function pointer, dereference the
function pointer back to a function. If it was indeed a function
pointer, the first inner check struct convert it to function pointer
again. Is my understanding correct?


Yes. A commmon trick to get an object of type T for SFINAE is something like
this:

  template < typename T >
  class is_something {

    static
    T dummy ( void );

    static
    yes_type check ( some_magic );

    static
    no_type check ( ... );
    
  public:
     ...
  };

However, hacking on this code, I learned that functions cannot serve as
return value types. The dereferencing a T* to get a parameter of type T is
a trick to get around that.

However, there is now another problem with the code: it won't compile if T
is a reference type (since one cannot form pointer-to-reference types).
Thus, the code needs a partial specialization for reference types.

Also, since it really is just a convertibility check, one should factor that
out. Thus, I propose now:

// yes_type
// ========

  struct yes_type { char dummy; };
  struct no_type { yes_type a; yes_type b; };

// is_convertible
// ==============

  template < typename From, typename To >
  class is_convertible {

    static
    From* dummy ( void );

    static
    yes_type check ( To );

    static
    no_type check ( ... );
    
  public:
    
    static bool const value =
      sizeof( check( *dummy() ) ) == sizeof( yes_type );
    
  }; // is_convertible

  // TRICKY: [why the From* and *dummy() detour]
  /*
    The reason is that functions cannot return function
    types. Thus, in order to deal with the case where
    From is a function type, we do this trick.

    On the other hand, this screws up reference types.
    Thus, we need to provide a partial specialization.
  */

  template < typename From, typename To >
  class is_convertible<From&,To> {

    static
    From& dummy ( void );

    static
    yes_type check ( To );

    static
    no_type check ( ... );
    
  public:
    
    static bool const value =
      sizeof( check( dummy() ) ) == sizeof( yes_type );
    
  }; // is_convertible
  

// is_function_type
// ================

  template < typename T >
  struct is_function_type {

    static bool const value =
      ( ! is_class_type<T>::value )
      &&
      ( is_convertible<T,T*>::value );

  };

  // T&* is not well formed:
  template < typename T >
  struct is_function_type<T&> {

    static bool const value = false;

  };

Now I know why managers don't like C++.


Huh? Isn't this fun? How could managers fail to see that?

Best

Kai-Uwe Bux

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