Re: decltype interaction with initializer lists

From:
=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Daniel_Kr=FCgler?= <daniel.kruegler@googlemail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Sat, 7 Apr 2012 14:27:31 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<jlpg5g$h16$1@dont-email.me>
Am 07.04.2012 02:55, schrieb Brendan:

Here's some more decltype strangeness. This expression fails to
compile:

decltype({1,2,3})

Here's I'm trying to infer a type of std::initializer_list<int>. Any
idea why this doesn't work? Is this standard or a bug in my compiler
(gcc 4.6)?


This use-case of decltype is not allowed by the core language. Reason is
that decltype requires according to the grammar an /expression/ (see
[dcl.type.simple] p1 for example), but {1, 2, 3} is no expression, it is
a so-called braced-init-list. Note that the support of
braced-init-list's by 'auto' are due to a very special rule. Normal
templates like

template<class T>
void f(T);

don't deduce T if the argument is an braced-init-list like in

f({1,2,3});

So, decltype is consistent with normal templates.

For successful deduction the template argument must have a form like

#include <initializer_list>

template<class T>
void f(std::initializer_list<T>);

Now

f({1,2,3});

can be deduced. This example points to a simple way how to deduce the
proper instantiation of any std::initializer_list's in a generic
context. Just declare a function template like so:

#include <initializer_list>

template<class T>
std::initializer_list<T> create_list(std::initializer_list<T>);

Now use decltype with this helper function template like so:

decltype(create_list({1,2,3}))

In this example the deduced type should be equal to
std::initializer_list<int>.

HTH & Greetings from Bremen,

Daniel Kr?gler

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