Re: Heterogeneous collection: return type overload

From:
"Leigh Johnston" <leigh@i42.co.uk>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:12:32 -0000
Message-ID:
<I8qdnZmmNIvcMODWnZ2dnUVZ8hydnZ2d@giganews.com>
"jrbcast" <jrbcast@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ba435613-d7f2-40fd-9b69-5ea799f10071@e1g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...

On Feb 18, 9:53 pm, "Leigh Johnston" <le...@i42.co.uk> wrote:

"jrbcast" <jrbc...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:866a2791-2934-41a3-ba19-6721111f887a@u9g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...

On Feb 18, 9:04 pm, James Kanze <james.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Feb 18, 6:50 am, jrbcast <jrbc...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Feb 17, 7:59 pm, "Leigh Johnston" <le...@i42.co.uk> wrote:

"jrbcast" <jrbc...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ae30bbcc-2fea-413d-9696-ad036be5d29d@f15g2000yqe.googlegroups.com...

Imagine I have something like this:
class Collection
{
std::map<char *, void *> elements;


Using a char* as a key in a map is probably not a very good
idea.


Yes, I realized about that after posting ;-), I am now using
std::string

Collection();

Try "std::map<std::string, boost::any> elements;" instead.

Thanks for your responses. Now it is clear that C++ does not
support function overloading on return types :-(.


Not directly, but it's fairly simple to get the same effect by
means of a proxy:

    class Collection
    {
    public:
        class Proxy
        {
            Collection const* owner;
            std::string key;
        public:
            Proxy(Collection const& owner, std::string const& key)
                : owner(&owner)
                , key(key)
            {
            }
            template< typename T > operator T() const
            {
                return owner->... // whatever it takes to get
                                   // the correctly typed value
            }
        }
        Proxy get(std::string const& key) const
        {
            return Proxy(*this, key);
        }
        // ...
    };


I am afraid I am not able to follow the code (too hard for me and my
usual needs). Can you point me to some book/web... where to learn such
special things?

Cheers


Which bit(s) don't you understand?

/Leigh


Thank you very much, I did not realize that "proxy" was the key word
to google it :-S. Sorry, too late here after work (Spain = 21:54).

I can not imagine how this proxy hides types management in a
heterogeneous structure like that I am proposing here std::map<
std::string, void *> so the caller does not need to explicitly pass
the type it is expecting, just receive it (the called object will care
about that)...

I have written something like this but I would like (if possible) to
know if there is a more "advanced" or "correct" way to do that:

// PLEASE NOTE CODE HAS NOT BEEN COMPILED YET AND MAY BE ERRONEOUS

#define angle_t double

#define rot(object) *((angle_t*)(object.getValue(std::string("rot"))))
#define tilt(object) *((angle_t*)
(object.getValue(std::string("tilt"))))
#define psi(object) *((angle_t*)(object.getValue(std::string("psi"))))

class objectValues
{
std::map<std::string, void *> values;
objectValues();
~objectValues();

int addValue( std::string name, int value )
{
void * newValue = (void *)(new int(value));
return insertVoidPtr( name, newValue );
}

int addValue( std::string name, double value )
{
void * newValue = (void *)(new double(value));
return insertVoidPtr( name, newValue );
}

int insertVoidPtr( std::string name, void * value )
{
// Return value for "insert" call
pair<map<std::string, void *>::iterator,bool> ret;

 ret = values.insert( pair<std::string, void*>(name,value) );

if (ret.second==false)
{
return -1;
}
else
{
return 0;
}
}

void * getValue( std::string name )
{
map <std::string, *void>::const_iterator element;

  element = values.find( name );

  if ( element == values.end( ) )
{
return NULL;
}
else
{
return element->second;
}
}

bool valueExists( std::string name )
{
map <std::string, *void>::const_iterator element;

  element = values.find( name );

  if ( element == values.end( ) )
{
return false;
}
else
{
return true;
}
}

void deleteValue( std::string name )
{
map <std::string, *void>::const_iterator element;

  element = values.find( name );

  if ( element != values.end( ) )
{
values.erase( element );
}
}
}


I really think you should be using the following:

typedef boost::variant<double, int, ...> element_types;
std::set<std::string, element_types>;

If you do this you no longer have to "new" things or worry about deleting
things and you have type information at your fingertips. You are also doing
less memory allocations as you are storing things by value in the set
container.

/Leigh

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