Disambiguating calls to functions taking std::functions - c++

The code below doesn't compile on gcc 4.5 because the call to foo is ambiguous. What is the correct way to disambiguate it?
#include <iostream>
#include <functional>
using namespace std;
void foo(std::function<void(int, int)> t)
{
t(1, 2);
}
void foo(std::function<void(int)> t)
{
t(2);
}
int main()
{
foo([](int a, int b){ cout << "a: " << a << " b: " << b << endl;});
}

The best way is to explicitly create a std::function object of the correct type then pass that object to the function:
std::function<void(int, int)> func =
[](int a, int b) { cout << "a: " << a << " b: " << b << endl; }
foo(func);
or inline:
foo(
std::function<void(int, int)>(
[](int a, int b) { cout << "a: " << a << "b: " << b << endl; }
));
std::function has a constructor template that accepts anything:
template<class F> function(F);
Because of this, there's no way for the compiler to know during overload resolution which foo to select: both std::function<void(int)> and std::function<void(int, int)> have a constructor that can take your lambda expression as an argument.
When you pass a std::function object directly, the std::function copy constructor is preferred during overload resolution, so it is selected instead of the constructor template.
Answer for the future: If the capture list is guaranteed to be empty, you can also use ordinary function pointers. In C++0x, a captureless lambda is implicitly convertible to a function pointer. So, you can use something like
void foo(void (*t)(int, int)) { t(1, 2); }
void foo(void (*t)(int)) { t(1); }
and call foo directly with the captureless lambda (or a function pointer with matching type).
Note that this conversion is a very recent addition to the draft language standard (it was added in February of this year), so it is not likely to be widely supported yet. Visual C++ 2010 doesn't support it yet; I don't know about the latest g++.

I've recently been thinking about a similar problem and when looking around for any known solutions I came across this post and lack of solutions for resolving
An alternative solution is to abstract over the functor as a template argument and use decltype to resolve its type. So, the above example would become:
#include <iostream>
#include <functional>
using namespace std;
template<class F>
auto foo(F t) -> decltype(t(1,2))
{
t(1, 2);
}
template<class F>
auto foo(F t) -> decltype(t(2))
{
t(2);
}
int main()
{
foo([](int a, int b){ cout << "a: " << a << " b: " << b << endl;});
}
This works as expected with gcc 4.5.

Related

C++20 function overloading with references [duplicate]

If we have this example functions code in C++
void foo(int x) { std::cout << "foo(int)" << std::endl; }
void foo(int& x) { std::cout << "foo(int &)" << std::endl; }
Is it possible to difference what function to call doing any modification in the calling arguments?
If the function foo is called in some of these ways:
foo( 10);
i = 10;
foo( static_cast<const int>(i));
foo( static_cast<const int&>(i));
it's called the first foo overloaded function, because it can't pass by reference a const argument to a non-const parameter.
But, how would you do to call the second foo overload function?
If I call the next way:
int i = 10;
foo( i);
It happens an ambiguous error because both functions are valid for this argument.
In this link https://stackoverflow.com/a/5465379/6717386 it's explained one way to resolve it: using objects instead of built-in types and doing private the copy constructor, so it can't do a copy of object value and it has to be called the second foo overload function and passing the object by reference. But, is there any way with the built-in types? I have to change the name of function to avoid the overloading?
You may do a cast (of the function) to select the overload function:
static_cast<void (&)(int&)>(foo)(i);
Demo
In most instance, function overloading involves distinct parameter types and different input parameter lengths.
Your attempt is generally a bad practice and the resulting compiled code is compiler dependent and code optimization may even worsen things even more.
You may consider simply adding a second parameter to the second method, something like this:
void foo(int x) { std::cout << "foo(int)" << std::endl; }
void foo(int& x, ...) { std::cout << "foo(int &, ...)" << std::endl; }
where ... could be a boolean type, say: bool anotherFunction
So calling foo(param1, param2) would simply call the second code and everybody is fine.
Very strange design, but if you want... I'll offer a solution as strange as your design Use Xreference in function signature. Then in the function you can check what you need to do using std::is_lvalue_reference, std::is_rvalue_reference.
Something like this
template<class T>
void foo(T&& x)
{
static_assert(std::is_same<std::decay_t<T>, int>::value, "!");
if (std::is_rvalue_reference<T&&>::value)
std::cout << "do here what you want in foo(int x)";
else
std::cout << "do here what you want in foo(int & x)";
}
int main()
{
int x = 5;
foo(x); //"do here what you want in foo(int x)" - will be printed
foo(std::move(x)); //"do here what you want in foo(int & x)" - will be printed
}
Despite the good answer of #Jarod42, as an alternative solution you can rely on a templated entry point and the overloading of an internal function (if you don't want to deal with explicit casts, of course).
It follows a minimal, working example:
#include<type_traits>
#include<iostream>
#include<utility>
void foo_i(char, int x) { std::cout << "foo(int)" << std::endl; }
void foo_i(int, int &x) { std::cout << "foo(int &)" << std::endl; }
template<typename T>
void foo(T &&t) {
static_assert(std::is_same<std::decay_t<T>, int>::value, "!");
foo_i(0, std::forward<T>(t));
}
int main() {
foo( 10);
int i = 10;
foo( static_cast<const int>(i));
foo( static_cast<const int &>(i));
foo(i);
}
The static_assert serves the purpose of checking the parameter to be something that involves int (that is int, int &, const int &, int &&`, and so on).
As you can see from the code above, foo(i) will print:
foo(int &)
As expected.
Another one:
#include <iostream>
#include <functional>
void foo(int x)
{
std::cout << "foo(int)\n";
}
template<typename T>
void foo(T&& x)
{
std::cout << "foo(int&)\n";
}
int main()
{
int i = 10;
foo(i); // foo(int)
foo(std::ref(i)); // foo(int&)
}
I just happened to have stumbled upon this post and was surprised not to find the typical SFINAE solution. So, there you go:
#include <iostream>
#include <type_traits>
template<typename T,
typename std::enable_if<!std::is_lvalue_reference<T>{}, int>::type = 0>
void foo(T)
{ std::cout << "foo(int)" << std::endl; }
template<typename T,
typename std::enable_if<std::is_lvalue_reference<T>{}, int>::type = 0>
void foo(T&)
{ std::cout << "foo(int &)" << std::endl; }
int main() {
int i = 42;
int& r = i;
foo<decltype(i)>(i);
foo<decltype(r)>(r);
}
Live example

Did std::bind implement std::ref and std::cref to disambiguate the function call?

I know that I shouldn't overload a function for just parameters differ only in one of them passed by copy and the other by reference:
void foo(int x)
{
cout << "in foo(int x) x: " << x << endl;
}
void foo(int& x)
{
cout << "in foo(int& x) x: " << x << endl;
}
int main()
{
int a = 1;
foo(5); // ok as long as there is one best match foo(int)
foo(a); // error: two best candidates so the call is ambiguous
//foo(std::move(a));
//foo(std::ref(an)); // why also this doesn't work?
}
So a code that uses std::bind can be like this:
std::ostream& printVec(std::ostream& out, const std::vector<int> v)
{
for (auto i : v)
out << i << ", ";
return out;
}
int main()
{
//auto func = std::bind(std::cout, std::placeholders::_1); // error: stream objects cannot be passed by value
auto func = std::bind(std::ref(std::cout), std::placeholders::_1); // ok.
}
So std::ref here to ensure passing by reference rather than by value to avoid ambiguity?
* The thing that matters me: Does std::bind() implemented some wrapper to overcome this issue?
Why I can't use std::ref in my example to help the compiler in function matching?
Now that you know passing by value and reference are ambiguous when overload resolution tries to compare them for choosing a best viable function, let's answer how would you use std::ref (or std::cref) to differentiate between pass-by-value and pass-by-reference.
It turns out to be ... pretty simple. Just write the overloads such that one accepts a int, and the other accepts a std::reference_wrapper<int>:
#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
void foo(int x) {
std::cout << "Passed by value.\n";
}
void foo(std::reference_wrapper<int> x) {
std::cout << "Passed by reference.\n";
int& ref_x = x;
ref_x = 42;
/* Do whatever you want with ref_x. */
}
int main() {
int x = 0;
foo(x);
foo(std::ref(x));
std::cout << x << "\n";
return 0;
}
Output:
Passed by value.
Passed by reference.
42
The function pass the argument by value by default. If you want to pass by reference, use std::ref explicitly.
Now let's answer your second question: how does std::bind deal with this type of scenario. Here is a simple demo I have created:
#include <functional>
#include <type_traits>
#include <iostream>
template <typename T>
struct Storage {
T data;
};
template <typename T>
struct unwrap_reference {
using type = T;
};
template <typename T>
struct unwrap_reference<std::reference_wrapper<T>> {
using type = std::add_lvalue_reference_t<T>;
};
template <typename T>
using transform_to_storage_type = Storage<typename unwrap_reference<std::decay_t<T>>::type>;
template <typename T>
auto make_storage(T&& obj) -> transform_to_storage_type<T> {
return transform_to_storage_type<T> { std::forward<T>(obj) };
}
int main() {
int a = 0, b = 0, c = 0;
auto storage_a = make_storage(a);
auto storage_b = make_storage(std::ref(b));
auto storage_c = make_storage(std::cref(c));
storage_a.data = 42;
storage_b.data = 42;
// storage_c.data = 42; // Compile error: Cannot modify const.
// 0 42 0
std::cout << a << " " << b << " " << c << "\n";
return 0;
}
It is not std::bind, but the method used is similar (it's also similar to std::make_tuple, which has the same semantic). make_storage by default copies the parameter, unless you explicitly use std::ref.
As you can see, std::ref is not magic. You need to do something extra for it to work, which in our case is to first decay the type (all references are removed in this process), and then check whether the final type is a reference_wrapper or not; if it is, unwrap it.

A little hazy about std::ref() and std::bind() with variadic templates

I have read many posts about variadic templates and std::bind but I think I am still not understanding how they work together. I think my concepts are a little hazy when it comes to using variadic templates, what std::bind is used for and how they all tie together.
In the following code my lambda uses the dot operator with objects of type TestClass but even when I pass in objects of type std::ref they still work. How is this exactly? How does the implicit conversion happen?
#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::endl;
#include <functional>
#include <utility>
using std::forward;
class TestClass {
public:
TestClass(const TestClass& other) {
this->integer = other.integer;
cout << "Copy constructed" << endl;
}
TestClass() : integer(0) {
cout << "Default constructed" << endl;
}
TestClass(TestClass&& other) {
cout << "Move constructed" << endl;
this->integer = other.integer;
}
int integer;
};
template <typename FunctionType, typename ...Args>
void my_function(FunctionType function, Args&&... args) {
cout << "in function" << endl;
auto bound_function = std::bind(function, args...);
bound_function();
}
int main() {
auto my_lambda = [](const auto& one, const auto& two) {
cout << one.integer << two.integer << endl;
};
TestClass test1;
TestClass test2;
my_function(my_lambda, std::ref(test1), std::ref(test2));
return 0;
}
More specifically, I pass in two instances of a reference_wrapper with the two TestClass objects test1 and test2, but when I pass them to the lambda the . operator works magically. I would expect that you have use the ::get() function in the reference_wrapper to make this work but the call to the .integer data member works..
The reference unwrapping is performed by the result of std::bind():
If the argument is of type std::reference_wrapper<T> (for example, std::ref or std::cref was used in the initial call to bind), then the reference T& stored in the bound argument is passed to the invocable object.
Corresponding standardese can be found in N4140 draft, [func.bind.bind]/10.
It is important to note that with std::bind;
The arguments to bind are copied or moved, and are never passed by reference unless wrapped in std::ref or std::cref.
The "passed by reference" above is achieved because std::ref provides a result of std::reference_wrapper that is a value type that "wraps" the reference provided.
std::reference_wrapper is a class template that wraps a reference in a copyable, assignable object. It is frequently used as a mechanism to store references inside standard containers (like std::vector) which cannot normally hold references.
By way of an example of what bind's unwrapping of the reference does (without the bind);
#include <iostream>
#include <utility>
#include <functional>
int main()
{
using namespace std;
int a = 1;
auto b = std::ref(a);
int& c = b;
cout << a << " " << b << " " << c << " " << endl; // prints 1 1 1
c = 2;
cout << a << " " << b << " " << c << " " << endl; // prints 2 2 2
}
Demo code.

How to bind one of member functions of the same name in a class, with c++11 std::bind

class Test{
public:
int work(){
cout << "in work " << endl;
return 0;
}
void work(int x){
//cout << "x = " << x << endl;
cout << "in work..." << endl;
}
};
int main(){
Test test;
std::function<void()> f = std::bind(&Test::work, &test);
thread th(f);
th.join();
return 0;
}
As above code, I want to bind member function void work(void) of a class (let's name it Test) , but occurs compiler error saying that can not determine which overrided function to use.
I can not change class Test since it belongs to a lib, how to achieve my goal? Thanks in advance!
Why don't skip std::bind altogether and use a lambda?
auto fp = [&t]() { t.test()};
As a bonus, your executable size will be smaller and your compiler has much easier time to inline the code if appropriate.
By casting it to the correct type:
std::function<void()> f = std::bind( static_cast<int (Test::*)()>(&Test::work), &test);
When deducing the template arguments to bind, the compiler is not in a context that allows function overload resolution - to be simplistic about it, it hasn't got that far yet.
Having deduced that the first argument is indeed the name of a member function pointer, it finds that there are two functions of the same name but of different types.
At this stage, they're both equally valid candidates (from the point of template argument deduction), therefore it's ambiguous
A static cast disambiguates because we're pushing the compiler beyond the stage where it has to deduce a template type - we have taken on the responsibility to template type deduction ourselves - by specifying the type in the static_cast.
So now all it has to do is overload resolution.
#include <functional>
#include <thread>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
class Test{
public:
int work(){
cout << "in work " << endl;
return 0;
}
void work(int x){
//cout << "x = " << x << endl;
cout << "in work..." << endl;
}
};
int main(){
Test test;
// only overload resolution required here
auto fp = static_cast<int (Test::*)()>(&Test::work);
// type is now unambiguous and overload resolution is already done
std::function<void()> f = std::bind(fp, &test);
thread th(f);
th.join();
return 0;
}
try this(member function ptr):
int main(){
Test test;
typedef int(Test:: *WKPtr)(void);
WKPtr p = &Test::work;
std::function<int()> f = std::bind(p, &test);
f();
return 0;
}

boost::bind and class member function

Consider following example.
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <vector>
#include <boost/bind.hpp>
void
func(int e, int x) {
std::cerr << "x is " << x << std::endl;
std::cerr << "e is " << e << std::endl;
}
struct foo {
std::vector<int> v;
void calc(int x) {
std::for_each(v.begin(), v.end(),
boost::bind(func, _1, x));
}
void func2(int e, int x) {
std::cerr << "x is " << x << std::endl;
std::cerr << "e is " << e << std::endl;
}
};
int
main()
{
foo f;
f.v.push_back(1);
f.v.push_back(2);
f.v.push_back(3);
f.v.push_back(4);
f.calc(1);
return 0;
}
All works fine if I use func() function. But in real life application I have to use class member function, i.e. foo::func2() in this example. How can I do this with boost::bind ?
You were really, really close:
void calc(int x) {
std::for_each(v.begin(), v.end(),
boost::bind(&foo::func2, this, _1, x));
}
EDIT: oops, so was I. heh.
Although, on reflection, there is nothing really wrong with your first working example. You should really favour free functions over member functions where possible - you can see the increased simplicity in your version.
While using boost::bind for binding class member functions, the second argument must supply the object context. So your code will work when the second argument is this