Re: Is there a proposal to fix the operator[] (rvalue/lvalue issues)??

From:
brangdon@cix.co.uk (Dave Harris)
Newsgroups:
comp.std.c++
Date:
Sat, 26 Aug 2006 20:28:48 GMT
Message-ID:
<memo.20060826125854.128B@brangdon.cix.compulink.co.uk>
jose.diego@gmail.com () wrote (abridged):

I made the following function to access a map elements to simulate the
operator[] in a const map

 [snip get() function that returns a default value]

If the std::map<>::operator[] could be used as an rvalue, it could have
the above implementation

What do you think?


I think it differs too much from operator[] to have that name. It's
result type is different, and it never inserts missing keys.

However, I agree it is a useful function. I would call it something like,
"at_if_absent", or "at_else". And I'd provide it for all the indexed
containers. For example:

    const value &at_else( const vector<value> &vec, size_t key,
            const value &ifAbsent=value() ) {
        return (key < vec.size()) ? vec[key] : ifAbsent;
    }

The non-const version makes sense, too, but is slightly problematic in C++
because we can't bind non-const references to temporary values. It would
still be useful with non-temporaries, eg:

    std::vector<int> counts(100);
    int missingCount = 0;
    
    for (int i = 0; i < 1000; ++i)
        at_else( counts, rand()/100, missingCount ) += 1;

-- Dave Harris, Nottingham, UK.

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