Can I exclude some methods from manual template instantiation? - c++

Question

We have complex template classes that have some methods which will not work with certain policies or types. Therefore, when we detect those types (at compile time, using type-traits) we fire a static assertion with a nice message.
Now we do a lot of manual template instantiation as well. Partly it is so that the methods are forced to compiler to syntax check the methods. It also reduces compile time for the library user. The problem is that the static assertions are always fired and consequently we cannot manually instantiate the template class in question.
Is there a workaround for this?
EDIT: To make it clearer, here is an example (the explicit instantiation in this case will fail on someFunc1():
// header
template <typename T>
class someClass
{
void someFunc() {}
void someFunc1() { static_assert(false, assertion_failed); }
};
// source
template someClass<int>; // Explicit instantiation
EDIT2: Here is another example. This time you can compile it to see what I mean. First compile right away. The code should compile. Then Uncomment [2] and the static assertion should fire. Now comment out [2] and Uncomment [1]. The static assertion will fire because you are explicitly instantiating the template. I want to avoid removing explicit instantiation because of the benefits that come with it (see above for benefits).
namespace Loki
{
template<int> struct CompileTimeError;
template<> struct CompileTimeError<true> {};
}
#define LOKI_STATIC_CHECK(expr, msg) \
{ Loki::CompileTimeError<((expr) != 0)> ERROR_##msg; (void)ERROR_##msg; }
template <typename T>
class foo
{
public:
void func() {}
void func1() { LOKI_STATIC_CHECK(sizeof(T) == 4, Assertion_error); }
};
template foo<int>;
//template foo<double>; // [1]
int main()
{
foo<int> a;
a.func1();
foo<double> b;
//b.func1(); //[2]
return 0;
}

Answer 1

You can't have both: you can't have a static assertion to prevent instantiation and explicitly instantiate the type! This is an obvious contradiction. What you can have, however, is conditionally included functionality even though it is somewhat a pain in the neck: If a certain member function is not supposed to be supported for certain types, you can move this function into a base class which conditionally has it. This way you wouldn't use a static assertion but just remove the member function. I realize that this introduces interesting other problems, e.g. with respect to the location of member variables, but I think in the context you are describing this is the best you can get.
Here is a quick example of how this could look like:
template <typename T, bool = std::numeric_limits<T>::is_integer> struct foo_base;
template <typename T> struct foo_base<T, false> { /* intentionally left blank */ };
template <typename T> struct foo_base<T, true> { void foo() { /*...*/ } };
template <typename T>
struct Foo: foo_base<T> { /* .... */ };
template struct Foo<int>; // will have foo()
template struct Foo<double>; // will not have foo()

Answer 2

Alright, so if you're forcing the instantiation of all methods using explicit instantiation, you can't get away with any compile time tricks to prevent instantiation of the offending methods, such as enable_if. It'd be easy enough to move the error to runtime, but that's undesirable.
I think the best you can do is move the error to link time, which will statically ensure that the program does not contain a code path that could potentially call the prohibited function, but the error messages won't be very helpful to anyone that doesn't know about the restriction you're imposing. Anyway, the solution is to declare a specialization of the prohibited member functions but not define them:
template<typename T>
struct Foo {
void bar() {
std::cout << "bar\n";
}
void baz() {
std:: cout << "baz\n";
}
};
template<> void Foo<int>::baz(); // use of Foo<int>::baz() will resolve to this specialization, and linking will fail
template struct Foo<int>;
template struct Foo<char>;
int main() {
Foo<int> f;
f.bar();
// f.baz(); // uncommenting this line results in an ugly link time error
Foo<char> b;
b.bar();
b.baz(); // works with Foo<char>
}
The static asserts no longer help give nice error messages when a mistake is made in client code, but you might want to leave them in because they'll fire if you forget to provide a specialization.

Answer 3

enable_if is a flexible mechanism for precise template methods targeting, may be what you are after. Example:
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <boost/utility.hpp>
#include <boost/type_traits.hpp>
#include <boost/static_assert.hpp>
template <class T> class mywrapper
{
T _value;
template <class V>
typename boost::enable_if<boost::is_scalar<V>, void>::type printval_(V const& value)
{
BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT(boost::is_scalar<V>::value);
std::cout << "scalar: " << value << std::endl;
}
template <class V>
typename boost::enable_if<boost::is_compound<V>, void>::type printval_(V const& value)
{
BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT(boost::is_compound<V>::value);
std::cout << "compound: " << value << std::endl;
}
public:
mywrapper(T const& value):_value(value) { }
void printval() { printval_(_value); }
};
template class mywrapper<int>;
template class mywrapper<std::string>;
int main()
{
mywrapper<int> ival(333);
mywrapper<std::string> sval("test");
ival.printval();
sval.printval();
return 0;
}

Answer 4

I did not get an opportunity to test enable_if as suggested by bobah but I did come up with a solution that does not require boost and that satisfies my original requirement to a good extent (I say good and not full, will explain at the end)
The solution is to put a dummy template on the code that will fail if compiled under some selected types and is fine under others. So:
struct dummyStruct {};
#define DUMMY_TEMP typename dummy
#define DUMMY_PARAM dummyStruct
namespace Loki
{
template<int> struct CompileTimeError;
template<> struct CompileTimeError<true> {};
}
#define LOKI_STATIC_CHECK(expr, msg) \
{ Loki::CompileTimeError<((expr) != 0)> ERROR_##msg; (void)ERROR_##msg; }
template <typename T>
class foo
{
public:
void func() {}
template <typename T_Dummy>
void func1() { LOKI_STATIC_CHECK(sizeof(T) == 4, Assertion_error); }
};
template foo<int>;
template foo<double>; // [1]
int main()
{
foo<int> a;
a.func1<DUMMY_PARAM>();
foo<double> b;
//b.func1<DUMMY_PARAM>(); //[2] - this is a static error
return 0;
}
In all of my template code, these kind of functions (i.e. the ones that have static asserts OR work on some types and may fail on others by using type traits [in which case there is a selection of several different functions for different types]) are hidden from the client. So in my implementation, adding the extra dummy parameter is an OK compromise.
As a bonus, it lets me know that this function is designed to be used by only certain types. Furthermore, my original problem of explicit instantiation is solved by this simple technique.