Re: SFINAE doesn't work ?

From:
sheffmail@mail.ru
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Tue, 3 Jun 2008 10:58:57 CST
Message-ID:
<869d6f7d-47ab-46b5-9c7e-1a788e4ff21f@27g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>
On Jun 3, 7:03 am, sheffm...@mail.ru wrote:

Hello everyone, what I'm trying to do is typedef detection inside a
class definition, i.e I want to have a means which could execute some
code if template type parameter is a class which has public typedef
MyType for example and the other code if the class hasn't such
typedef. I understand that it might be impossible, but still, may be
it is...
Here's what I'm trying to do:

template <class T>
void function(const T& t, int it)
{
  T::iterator it2;
  std::cout << "1\n";

}

template <class T>
void function(const T& t, float it)
{
  std::cout << "2\n";

}

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  std::list<int> a;
  std::bitset<6> b;

  function(a, 0);
  function(b, 0);

  return 0;

}

What I want here is to detect if type T has typedef iterator, if it
has program should output "1", or "2" if it hasn't.
Compiling this using MSVC++2008 gives:

error C2039: 'iterator' : is not a member of 'std::bitset<_Bits>'
error C2065: 'iterator' : undeclared identifier
error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'it2'
error C2065: 'it2' : undeclared identifier

But why ? Compiler tried to compile void function(const T& t, int it),
it failed, because bitset doesn't have typedef iterator, the compiler
should (according to sfinae) try to compile the second overload of
'function', but it doesn't, why ?


According to this post -
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.c++.moderated/browse_thread/thread/
6329958fe7653b16#
It's possible to make typedef detection like this:

#include <bitset>
#include <list>
#include <iostream>

template<class T> struct Void { typedef void type; };

#define DEFINED_IMPL(TypedefName) \
template <class T, class Enable = void> \
struct TypedefName##Defined \
{ \
  enum { value = false }; \
}; \
template <class T> \
struct TypedefName##Defined<T, typename Void<typename
T::TypedefName>::type> \
{ \
  enum { value = true }; \
} \

#define DEFINED(TypeName, TypedefName) \
TypedefName##Defined<TypeName>::value \

DEFINED_IMPL(iterator);
DEFINED_IMPL(value_type);

template <bool Cond, class T> struct EnableIf {};
template <class T> struct EnableIf<true, T> { typedef T type; };

template <class T>
typename EnableIf<DEFINED(T, iterator) && DEFINED(T, value_type),
void>::type function(const T& t)
{
  std::cout << "iterator and value_type defined" << std::endl;
}

template <class T>
typename EnableIf<!(DEFINED(T, iterator) && DEFINED(T, value_type)),
void>::type function(const T& t)
{
  std::cout << "iterator and value_type not defined" << std::endl;
}

struct MyS
{
  typedef int iterator;
};

void main()
{
  std::list<int> a;
  std::bitset<6> b;
  int c;
  std::list< std::list<int> > d;
  std::string e;
  MyS f;

  function(a);
  function(b);
  function(c);
  function(d);
  function(e);
  function(f);
}

So the problem is solved, but! It's not just typedef detection I
wanted, it would be great to have conditional compiling using
templates, i.e without preprocessor, what I want is:

....
void function(...)
{
 //Some code here
}

....
void function(...)
{
 //This code gets compiled only if previous overload failed to compile
}

My first post was an attempt to create such conditional compiling, but
it's incorrect, could anyone tell me, is it possible in C++ ?
I think that theoretically it's possible, because of sfinae...

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