Is there a way to explicitly call optional arguments in c++? - c++

Question

When I create a function such as:
int addThree(int x=1, int y=1, int z=1)
I want to call the function such that it uses the default arguments for x and z, but not y.
Some attempts have been addThree(5,,5) and addThree(5,NULL,5), but neither work effectively.

Answer 1

The default arguments must be at the last of your list, so do as follows
int addThree(int y , int x = 1, int z = 1)
{
//some stuff
return someInt;
}
, hence you can call it as
int ans = addThree(4);

Answer 2

Default arguments in C++, need to be specified in immediate succession, and cannot be succeeded by a non-default parameter.
So, something like
int sum(int x = 0, int y, int z = 0) {
return (x + y + z);
}
is forbidden in C++
The function needs to be as follows:
#include <iostream>
int sum(int x, int y = 0, int z = 0) {
return (x + y + z);
}
int main() {
std::cout << sum(1) << "\n";//calls sum(1,0,0)
std::cout << sum(1,2) << "\n";//calls sum(1,2,0)
return 0;
}
However, while specifying default arguments, you always need to take care in function overloading. The overloaded functions cannot be called ambiguously..
So a code like:
#include <iostream>
int sum(int x, int y = 0, int z = 0) {
return (x + y + z);
}
float sum(int x, float y = 0.0, float z = 0.0) {
return (float(x) + y + z);
}
int main() {
std::cout << sum(1) << "\n";
return 0;
}
does not compile and righty produces ambiguity error, as the compiler does not understand
Whether it should call the first sum, or the second sum.

Answer 3

If you're consistently passing a value for one parameter and using the defaults for the others, you can rearrange the parameters to the one you need to pass is first, and the ones for which you use defaults come later. But that only works if it's essentially always the same ones for which you supply a value vs. use the defaults.
Otherwise, if you need something similar to the basic capability badly enough, you can pass an instance of a class, and have that class implement the named parameter idiom.
class triplet {
int x_ {1};
int y_ {1};
int z_ {1};
public:
triplet &x(int val) { x_ = val; return *this; }
triplet &y(int val) { y_ = val; return *this; }
triplet &z(int val) { z_ = val; return *this; }
int x() const { return x_; }
int y() const { return y_; }
int z() const { return z_; }
};
int addThree(triplet const &t) {
return oldAddThree(t.x(), t.y(), t.z());
}
int ans = addThree(triplet().x(4));
This lets you use the defaults for as many or few of the values you need as you want, and override only those that you actually want to. On the other hand, it does add a fair amount of syntactic overhead, so you have to want the capability pretty badly to bother.