How to concatenate static strings at compile time? - c++

Question

I am trying to use templates to create an analogue of the type_info::name() function which emits the const-qualified name. E.g. typeid(bool const).name() is "bool" but I want to see "bool const". So for generic types I define:
template<class T> struct type_name { static char const *const _; };
template<class T> char const *const type_name<T>::_ = "type unknown";
char const *const type_name<bool>::_ = "bool";
char const *const type_name<int>::_ = "int";
//etc.
Then type_name<bool>::_ is "bool". For non-const types obviously I could add a separate definition for each type, so char const *const type_name<bool const>::_ = "bool const"; etc. But I thought I would try a partial specialization and a concatenation macro to derive in one line the const-qualified name for any type which has its non-const-qualified name previously defined. So
#define CAT(A, B) A B
template<class T> char const *const type_name<T const>::_
= CAT(type_name<T>::_, " const"); // line [1]
But then type_name<bool const>::_ gives me error C2143: syntax error: missing ';' before 'string' for line [1]. I think that type_name<bool>::_ is a static string known at compile time, so how do I get it concatenated with " const" at compile time?
I tried more simple example but same problem:
char str1[4] = "int";
char *str2 = MYCAT(str1, " const");

Answer 1

I recently revisited this problem, and found that the previous answer I gave produced ridiculously long compile times when concatenating more than a handful of strings.
I have produced a new solution which leverages constexpr functions to remove the recursive templates responsible for the long compilation time.
#include <array>
#include <iostream>
#include <string_view>
template <std::string_view const&... Strs>
struct join
{
// Join all strings into a single std::array of chars
static constexpr auto impl() noexcept
{
constexpr std::size_t len = (Strs.size() + ... + 0);
std::array<char, len + 1> arr{};
auto append = [i = 0, &arr](auto const& s) mutable {
for (auto c : s) arr[i++] = c;
};
(append(Strs), ...);
arr[len] = 0;
return arr;
}
// Give the joined string static storage
static constexpr auto arr = impl();
// View as a std::string_view
static constexpr std::string_view value {arr.data(), arr.size() - 1};
};
// Helper to get the value out
template <std::string_view const&... Strs>
static constexpr auto join_v = join<Strs...>::value;
// Hello world example
static constexpr std::string_view hello = "hello";
static constexpr std::string_view space = " ";
static constexpr std::string_view world = "world";
static constexpr std::string_view bang = "!";
// Join them all together
static constexpr auto joined = join_v<hello, space, world, bang>;
int main()
{
std::cout << joined << '\n';
}
This gives much quicker compile times, even with a large quantity of strings to concatenate.
I personally find this solution easier to follow as the constexpr impl function is akin to how this could be solved at runtime.
Edited with improvements thanks to #Jarod42

Answer 2

EDIT - See my new, improved answer here.
Building on #Hededes answer, if we allow recursive templates, then concatenation of many strings can be implemented as:
#include <string_view>
#include <utility>
#include <iostream>
namespace impl
{
/// Base declaration of our constexpr string_view concatenation helper
template <std::string_view const&, typename, std::string_view const&, typename>
struct concat;
/// Specialisation to yield indices for each char in both provided string_views,
/// allows us flatten them into a single char array
template <std::string_view const& S1,
std::size_t... I1,
std::string_view const& S2,
std::size_t... I2>
struct concat<S1, std::index_sequence<I1...>, S2, std::index_sequence<I2...>>
{
static constexpr const char value[]{S1[I1]..., S2[I2]..., 0};
};
} // namespace impl
/// Base definition for compile time joining of strings
template <std::string_view const&...> struct join;
/// When no strings are given, provide an empty literal
template <>
struct join<>
{
static constexpr std::string_view value = "";
};
/// Base case for recursion where we reach a pair of strings, we concatenate
/// them to produce a new constexpr string
template <std::string_view const& S1, std::string_view const& S2>
struct join<S1, S2>
{
static constexpr std::string_view value =
impl::concat<S1,
std::make_index_sequence<S1.size()>,
S2,
std::make_index_sequence<S2.size()>>::value;
};
/// Main recursive definition for constexpr joining, pass the tail down to our
/// base case specialisation
template <std::string_view const& S, std::string_view const&... Rest>
struct join<S, Rest...>
{
static constexpr std::string_view value =
join<S, join<Rest...>::value>::value;
};
/// Join constexpr string_views to produce another constexpr string_view
template <std::string_view const&... Strs>
static constexpr auto join_v = join<Strs...>::value;
namespace str
{
static constexpr std::string_view a = "Hello ";
static constexpr std::string_view b = "world";
static constexpr std::string_view c = "!";
}
int main()
{
constexpr auto joined = join_v<str::a, str::b, str::c>;
std::cout << joined << '\n';
return 0;
}
I used c++17 with std::string_view as the size method is handy, but this could easily be adapted to use const char[] literals as #Hedede did.
This answer is intended as a response to the title of the question, rather than the more niche problem described.