Differences between functions and structs with regard to SFINAE - c++

I'm currently writing a small library of helper templates and have come across an unexpected inconsistency when using std::enable_if with template parameters.
These function templates compile fine in GCC 7.1:
template<typename T, std::enable_if_t<std::is_same_v<int, T>, T>* = nullptr>
void f() { };
template<typename T, std::enable_if_t<std::is_same_v<double, T>, T>* = nullptr>
void f() { };
int main()
{
f<int>();
f<double>();
}
Whereas these struct templates give compilation errors:
template<typename T, std::enable_if_t<std::is_same_v<int, T>, T>* = nullptr>
struct f { };
template<typename T, std::enable_if_t<std::is_same_v<double, T>, T>* = nullptr>
struct f { };
int main()
{
f<int> x;
f<double> y;
}
The errors:
main.cpp:36:70: error: template parameter ‘std::enable_if_t<is_same_v<int, T>, T>* <anonymous>’
template<typename T, std::enable_if_t<std::is_same_v<int, T>, T>* = nullptr>
^~~~~~~
main.cpp:40:12: error: redeclared here as ‘std::enable_if_t<is_same_v<double, T>, T>* <anonymous>’
struct f { };
^
I'm struggling to understand why with the struct the compiler is complaining about:
There being a default value for the second template parameter.
That the struct is re-declared even though the both have different template parameter lists.

This is due to the fact that functions can be overloaded whereas structs cannot.
For functions, both declarations can coexist and enable_if via SFINAE selects the correct overload.
For structs, the template parameters don't matter. Same name => Redeclaration.

Related

SFINAE type trait with pointer-to-member-function fails

I'm practicing SFINAE and would like to implement a type trait in order to check if a given class T contains a method print(). I have the following two variants:
// (1)
template <typename T, typename = int>
struct has_print_method : std::false_type {};
template <typename T>
struct has_print_method<T, decltype(&T::print, 0)> : std::true_type {};
template <typename T>
const bool has_print_method_v = has_print_method<T>::value;
// (2)
template <typename T>
struct has_print_method{
template <typename U, typename = void> struct helper : std::false_type{};
template <typename U> struct helper<U, decltype(&U::print)> : std::true_type{};
static const bool value = helper<T, void (T::*)() const>::value;
};
template <typename T>
const bool has_print_method_v = has_print_method<T>::value;
(1) only checks for the existence of a member method print() and ignores the member method's signature. Whereas (2) checks the method's signature, i.e. it requires a member method void print() const.
I test both variants via:
#include <iostream>
#include <type_traits>
// Simple Class A
struct A{
int a;
public:
void print() const{}
};
// (1) or (2) here
template<typename T, std::enable_if_t<has_print_method_v<T>, bool> = true>
void print(T t) {
t.print();
}
void print(double x){
std::cout << x << '\n';
}
int main() {
A a;
print(a);
print(1.0); // (*)
return 0;
}
Using the type trait (1) and compiling with clang 12.0 and std=c++17 flag works as expected. However, using (2) instead, I obtain
<source>:28:50: error: member pointer refers into non-class type 'double'
static const bool value = helper<T, void (T::*)() const>::value;
^
<source>:32:33: note: in instantiation of template class 'has_print_method<double>' requested here
const bool has_print_method_v = has_print_method<T>::value;
^
<source>:34:39: note: in instantiation of variable template specialization 'has_print_method_v<double>' requested here
template<typename T, std::enable_if_t<has_print_method_v<T>, bool> = true>
^
<source>:35:6: note: while substituting prior template arguments into non-type template parameter [with T = double]
void print(T t) {
^~~~~~~~~~~~
<source>:47:5: note: while substituting deduced template arguments into function template 'print' [with T = double, $1 = (no value)]
print(1.0);
^
1 error generated.
What am I missing here? You can find the example here on godbolt. Edit: Um, I have just noticed that both versions compile without an error with gcc11.1. Strange.
First up, judging by your error messages and my own tests, I think you mean that type trait (1) works and (2) doesn't. On that basis, here is a version of trait (1) that tests for a matching function signature:
template <typename T, typename = int>
struct has_print_method : std::false_type {};
template <typename T>
struct has_print_method<T, decltype(&T::print, 0)> : std::is_same <decltype(&T::print), void (T::*)() const> {};
template <typename T>
const bool has_print_method_v = has_print_method<T>::value;
Live demo

SFINAE on Error in Dependent Type causes unexpected hard error

I have code that I can simplify down to something like this:
#include <type_traits>
template <typename T>
struct dependent
{
using type = typename T::type;
};
template <typename T>
typename dependent<T>::type
foo(const T& x);
bool foo(bool x) { return x; }
int main()
{
foo(true);
}
This fails to compile with g++ 9.3 with --std=c++17 with the error:
test.cpp: In instantiation of 'struct dependent<bool>':
test.cpp:11:1: required by substitution of 'template<class T> typename dependent<T>::type foo(const T&) [with T = bool]'
test.cpp:17:13: required from here
test.cpp:6:11: error: 'bool' is not a class, struct, or union type
6 | using type = typename T::type;
| ^~~~
This is not what I would expect. I would expect that attempting to substitute bool for T in template <typename T> typename dependent<T>::type foo(const T& x) would be a failure, which is not an error. It seems SFINAE is not working for me, but I do not know why.
From the examples in the unofficial reference on SFINAE:
Substitution proceeds in lexical order and stops when a failure is encountered.
template <typename A>
struct B { using type = typename A::type; };
template <
class T,
class = typename T::type, // SFINAE failure if T has no member type
class U = typename B<T>::type // hard error if T has no member type
// (guaranteed to not occur as of C++14)
> void foo (int);
I am hitting the case on class U = typename B<T>::type, but the "guaranteed to not occur as of C++14" bit seems to indicate that this should not be happening as of C++14. What gives?
Issue is that dependent<T> has type, but that one might be ill formed causing hard failure.
You might make dependent SFINAE friendly:
template <typename T, typename Enabler = void>
struct dependent
{
};
template <typename T>
struct dependent<T, std::void_t<typename T::type>>
{
using type = typename T::type;
};
Demo

Member function template selection and SFINAE

I've been trying to understand the way C++ selects templates. Namely, consider the following code sample:
template <typename R>
class Curious
{
public:
template <typename T, typename std::enable_if<std::is_const<T>::value, int>::type = 33>
void test1() {}
template <typename T, typename std::enable_if<!std::is_const<T>::value, int>::type = 33>
void test1() {}
template <typename T, typename = typename std::enable_if<std::is_const<T>::value>::type>
void test2() {}
template <typename T, typename = typename std::enable_if<!std::is_const<T>::value>::type>
void test2() {}
template <typename std::enable_if<std::is_const<R>::value>::type * = nullptr>
void test3() {}
template <typename std::enable_if<!std::is_const<R>::value>::type * = nullptr>
void test3() {}
// works
template <typename T = void>
typename std::enable_if<std::is_const<R>::value, T>::type test4() {}
template <typename T = void>
typename std::enable_if<!std::is_const<R>::value, T>::type test4() {}
// also works
template <typename T = void, typename std::enable_if<std::is_const<R>::value, T>::type * = nullptr>
void test5() {}
template <typename T = void, typename std::enable_if<!std::is_const<R>::value, T>::type * = nullptr>
void test5() {}
}; // Curious
The first two functions (test1) work fine (why?):
Curious<int> curious;
curious.test1<int>();
curious.test1<const int>();
While the rest of them cause compilation errors.
Regarding the function test2 the compiler claims I'm trying to create a duplicate:
error C2535: 'void Curious::test2(void)': member function already defined or declared
Here the documentation says:
A common mistake is to declare two function templates that differ only
in their default template arguments. This is illegal because default
template arguments are not part of function template's signature, and
declaring two different function templates with the same signature is
illegal.
So it seems to be the case. However, I don't see that much difference from the first two functions, which also have the default template argument. Thus we have a default type (test2 - doesn't work) against a default value (test1 - works). Is there any rule about it?
In case of test3: error C2039: 'type': is not a member of 'std::enable_if'
Like in the first case this time the member function template has a default non-type parameter, but it depends on the class template parameter. Now SFINAE doesn't skip the wrong one (also not sure why).
In the fourth case SFINAE resolves the template by the return type. But don't these test4 functions have identical signature? As they differ only in the return type.
As far as I understand, in the fifth case adding extra parameter makes test5 signature dependent on the function template parameter, therefore SFINAE kicks in and resolution works.
I'm quite confused about how C++ deals with these templates. Could somebody be so kind to clear these things up?
With default value removed, for test1, you have:
template <typename T, typename std::enable_if<std::is_const<T>::value, int>::type>
void test1();
template <typename T, typename std::enable_if<!std::is_const<T>::value, int>::type>
void test1();
Which have clearly different signatures.
For test2:
template <typename T, typename> void test2();
template <typename T, typename> void test2();
Which are clearly identical signatures.
For test3, SFINAE doesn't apply as you have hard error as R is fixed in the class and your enable_if doesn't depend of template parameter of the function.
For test4, there is an exception about signature for template function as overload may differ only by return type so
int foo();
char foo(); // Illegal.
but
template <typename T> int foo();
template <typename T> char foo(); // legal, even it is not trivial to call
In addition, std::enable_if<!std::is_const<R>::value, T>::type depends on template parameter T so it is ok.
For test5, second template parameter depends on first template parameter T, so it is ok too.

Specializing a template on a lambda in C++0x

I've written a traits class that lets me extract information about the arguments and type of a function or function object in C++0x (tested with gcc 4.5.0). The general case handles function objects:
template <typename F>
struct function_traits {
template <typename R, typename... A>
struct _internal { };
template <typename R, typename... A>
struct _internal<R (F::*)(A...)> {
// ...
};
typedef typename _internal<decltype(&F::operator())>::<<nested types go here>>;
};
Then I have a specialization for plain functions at global scope:
template <typename R, typename... A>
struct function_traits<R (*)(A...)> {
// ...
};
This works fine, I can pass a function into the template or a function object and it works properly:
template <typename F>
void foo(F f) {
typename function_traits<F>::whatever ...;
}
int f(int x) { ... }
foo(f);
What if, instead of passing a function or function object into foo, I want to pass a lambda expression?
foo([](int x) { ... });
The problem here is that neither specialization of function_traits<> applies. The C++0x draft says that the type of the expression is a "unique, unnamed, non-union class type". Demangling the result of calling typeid(...).name() on the expression gives me what appears to be gcc's internal naming convention for the lambda, main::{lambda(int)#1}, not something that syntactically represents a C++ typename.
In short, is there anything I can put into the template here:
template <typename R, typename... A>
struct function_traits<????> { ... }
that will allow this traits class to accept a lambda expression?
I think it is possible to specialize traits for lambdas and do pattern matching on the signature of the unnamed functor. Here is the code that works on g++ 4.5. Although it works, the pattern matching on lambda appears to be working contrary to the intuition. I've comments inline.
struct X
{
float operator () (float i) { return i*2; }
// If the following is enabled, program fails to compile
// mostly because of ambiguity reasons.
//double operator () (float i, double d) { return d*f; }
};
template <typename T>
struct function_traits // matches when T=X or T=lambda
// As expected, lambda creates a "unique, unnamed, non-union class type"
// so it matches here
{
// Here is what you are looking for. The type of the member operator()
// of the lambda is taken and mapped again on function_traits.
typedef typename function_traits<decltype(&T::operator())>::return_type return_type;
};
// matches for X::operator() but not of lambda::operator()
template <typename R, typename C, typename... A>
struct function_traits<R (C::*)(A...)>
{
typedef R return_type;
};
// I initially thought the above defined member function specialization of
// the trait will match lambdas::operator() because a lambda is a functor.
// It does not, however. Instead, it matches the one below.
// I wonder why? implementation defined?
template <typename R, typename... A>
struct function_traits<R (*)(A...)> // matches for lambda::operator()
{
typedef R return_type;
};
template <typename F>
typename function_traits<F>::return_type
foo(F f)
{
return f(10);
}
template <typename F>
typename function_traits<F>::return_type
bar(F f)
{
return f(5.0f, 100, 0.34);
}
int f(int x) { return x + x; }
int main(void)
{
foo(f);
foo(X());
bar([](float f, int l, double d){ return f+l+d; });
}
The void_t trick can help. How does `void_t` work?
Unless you have C++17, you'll need to include the definition of void_t:
template<typename... Ts> struct make_void { typedef void type;};
template<typename... Ts> using void_t = typename make_void<Ts...>::type;
Add an extra template argument to the original template, defaulted to void:
template <typename T, typename = void>
struct function_traits;
The traits object for simple functions is the same as you already have:
template <typename R, typename... A>
struct function_traits<R (*)(A...)>
{
using return_type = R;
using class_type = void;
using args_type = std:: tuple< A... >;
};
For non-const methods:
template <typename R, typename... A>
struct function_traits<R (C::*)(A...)>
{
using return_type = R;
using class_type = void;
using args_type = std:: tuple< A... >;
};
Don't forget const methods:
template <typename R, typename C, typename... A>
struct function_traits<R (C::*)(A...) const> // const
{
using return_type = R;
using class_type = C;
using args_type = std:: tuple< A... >;
};
Finally, the important trait. Given a class type, including lambda types, we want to forward from T to decltype(&T::operator()). We want to ensure that this trait is only available for types T for which ::operator() is available, and this is what void_t does for us. To enforce this constraint, we need to put &T::operator() into the trait signature somewhere, hence template <typename T> struct function_traits<T, void_t< decltype(&T::operator())
template <typename T>
struct function_traits<T, void_t< decltype(&T::operator()) > >
: public function_traits< decltype(&T::operator()) >
{
};
The operator() method in (non-mutable, non-generic) lambdas is const, which explains why we need the const template above.
But ultimately this is very restrictive. This won't work with generic lambdas, or objects with templated operator(). If you reconsider your design, you find find a different approach that is more flexible.
By delegating some of the work to a series of function templates instead of a class template, you can extract the relevant info.
First though, I should say that the relevant method is a const method, for a lambda (for a non-capturing, non-generic, non-mutable lambda). So you will not be able to tell the difference between a true lambda and this:
struct {
int operator() (int) const { return 7; }
} object_of_unnamed_name_and_with_suitable_method;
Therefore, I must assume that you don't want "special treatment" for lambdas, and you don't want to test if a type is a lambda type, and that instead you want to simply extract the return type, and the type of all arguments, for any object which is simple enough. By "simple enough" I mean, for example, that the operator() method is not itself a template. And, for bonus information, a boolean to tell us if an operator() method was present and used, as opposed to a plain old function.
// First, a convenient struct in which to store all the results:
template<bool is_method_, bool is_const_method_, typename C, typename R, typename ...Args>
struct function_traits_results {
constexpr static bool is_method = is_method_;
constexpr static bool is_const_method = is_const_method_;
typedef C class_type; // void for plain functions. Otherwise,
// the functor/lambda type
typedef R return_type;
typedef tuple<Args...> args_type_as_tuple;
};
// This will extract all the details from a method-signature:
template<typename>
struct intermediate_step;
template<typename R, typename C, typename ...Args>
struct intermediate_step<R (C::*) (Args...)> // non-const methods
: public function_traits_results<true, false, C, R, Args...>
{
};
template<typename R, typename C, typename ...Args>
struct intermediate_step<R (C::*) (Args...) const> // const methods
: public function_traits_results<true, true, C, R, Args...>
{
};
// These next two overloads do the initial task of separating
// plain function pointers for functors with ::operator()
template<typename R, typename ...Args>
function_traits_results<false, false, void, R, Args...>
function_traits_helper(R (*) (Args...) );
template<typename F, typename ..., typename MemberType = decltype(&F::operator()) >
intermediate_step<MemberType>
function_traits_helper(F);
// Finally, the actual `function_traits` struct, that delegates
// everything to the helper
template <typename T>
struct function_traits : public decltype(function_traits_helper( declval<T>() ) )
{
};

Forward declaring a function that uses enable_if : ambiguous call

I have some trouble forward declaring a function that uses boost::enable_if: the following piece of code gives me a compiler error:
// Declaration
template <typename T>
void foo(T t);
// Definition
template <typename T>
typename boost::enable_if<boost::is_same<T, int> >::type foo(T t)
{
}
int main()
{
foo(12);
return 0;
}
When compiling, I get an "ambiguous call to foo" error. According to the definition of enable_if, the 'type' typedef corresponds to void when the condition is true, so as far as I can see, the two signatures of foo match. Why does the compiler think they are different, and is there a correct way to forward declare foo (preferably without repeating the enable_if part)?
This is not only a problem with enable_if. You get the same error on Visual Studio and gcc with the following code:
struct TypeVoid {
typedef void type;
};
template<typename T>
void f();
template<typename T>
typename T::type f() {
}
int main()
{
f<TypeVoid>();
return 0;
}
I think the main problem is that the return type (before instantiation) is part of the signature of a template function. There is more information here.
Regarding your code, if the declaration refers to the definition, you should match both:
// Declaration
template <typename T>
typename boost::enable_if<boost::is_same<T, int> >::type foo(T t);
// Definition
template <typename T>
typename boost::enable_if<boost::is_same<T, int> >::type foo(T t)
{
}
If the declaration refers to a different function, the compiler would never be able to choose the correct one for ints, because they both are valid. However, you can disable the first one for ints using disable_if:
// Other function declaration
template <typename T>
typename boost::disable_if<boost::is_same<T, int> >::type foo(T t);
// Defition
template <typename T>
typename boost::enable_if<boost::is_same<T, int> >::type foo(T t)
{
}
The problem is that the declaration and the definition do not match.
The solution is that the declaration should contain the exact same signature, and the the enable_if bit.
#include <boost/type_traits/is_same.hpp>
#include <boost/utility/enable_if.hpp>
// Declaration
template <typename T>
typename boost::enable_if<boost::is_same<T, int> >::type foo(T t);
// Definition
template <typename T>
typename boost::enable_if<boost::is_same<T, int> >::type foo(T t)
{
}
int main()
{
foo(12);
return 0;
}
This compiles fine on VC2008.