Re: Using a STL container of type self in a class declaration

From:
Kai-Uwe Bux <jkherciueh@gmx.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Sat, 8 Nov 2008 08:22:56 CST
Message-ID:
<49153afb$0$17066$6e1ede2f@read.cnntp.org>
Richard Smith wrote:

On Nov 8, 12:36 am, annamalai <annamalai.gurus...@gmail.com> wrote:

Does this mean that the CRTP for standard library containers are
undefined? For example,

struct B : std::list<B>
{
};


Yes, it is undefined. But why would you want to do this?
The
Curiously Recurring Template Pattern isn't something you can do with
an arbitrary template: it requires a template that was designed to
support it. Generally, it's because the base class does something
like:

   template <class Derived>
   struct base {
     void foo() { static_cast<Derived*>(this)->bar(); }
   };

The std::list template does not do anything like that.


Just to give one possible reason as to _why_ someone might want to do
something like that: I have a class that is defined just as

  struct pure_finite_set
    : public std::set< completion< pure_finite_set > > {
  }; // pure_finite_set

  // freestanding IO and operators for set operations omitted

which would be done without the completion<>, if I had a set<> template that
did not induce undefined behavior when the type parameter is incomplete.

The class models finite sets without atoms. Typical elements are

  zero = 0
  one = { 0 }
  two = { 0, { 0 } }
  three = { 0, { 0 }, { 0, { 0 } } }
  four = { 0, { 0 }, { 0, { 0 } }, { 0, { 0 }, { 0, { 0 } } } }
  even = { 0, { 0, { 0 } } }
  odd = { { 0 }, { 0, { 0 }, { 0, { 0 } } } }
  two + even = { 0, { 0 }, { 0, { 0 } } }
  even * three = { 0, { 0, { 0 } } }
  odd ^ even = { 0, { 0 }, { 0, { 0 } }, { 0, { 0 }, { 0, { 0 } } } }
  three - two = { { 0, { 0 } } }

where 0 denotes the empty set {}.

Best

Kai-Uwe Bux

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