Boost C++ Libraries

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has_less_equal
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template <class Lhs, class Rhs=Lhs, class Ret=dont_care>
struct has_less_equal : public true_type-or-false_type {};

Inherits: If (i) lhs of type Lhs and rhs of type Rhs can be used in expression lhs<=rhs, and (ii) Ret=dont_care or the result of expression lhs<=rhs is convertible to Ret then inherits from true_type, otherwise inherits from false_type.

The default behaviour (Ret=dont_care) is to not check for the return value of binary operator<=. If Ret is different from the default dont_care type, the return value is checked to be convertible to Ret. Convertible to Ret means that the return value of the operator can be used as argument to a function expecting Ret:

void f(Ret);
Lhs lhs;
Rhs rhs;
f(lhs<=rhs); // is valid if has_less_equal<Lhs, Rhs, Ret>::value==true

If Ret=void, the return type is checked to be exactly void.

Header: #include <boost/type_traits/has_less_equal.hpp> or #include <boost/type_traits/has_operator.hpp> or #include <boost/type_traits.hpp>

Compiler Compatibility: Requires working SFINAE (i.e. BOOST_NO_SFINAE is not set). Only a minority of rather old compilers do not support this.

Examples:

has_less_equal<Lhs, Rhs, Ret>::value_type is the type bool.

has_less_equal<Lhs, Rhs, Ret>::value is a bool integral constant expression.

has_less_equal<int>::value is a bool integral constant expression that evaluates to true.

has_less_equal<long> inherits from true_type.

has_less_equal<int, int, bool> inherits from true_type.

has_less_equal<int, double, bool> inherits from true_type.

has_less_equal<const int> inherits from true_type.

has_less_equal<int*, int> inherits from false_type.

has_less_equal<int*, double*> inherits from false_type.

has_less_equal<int, int, std::string> inherits from false_type.

See also: Operator Type Traits

Known issues:

  • This trait cannot detect whether binary operator<= is public or not: if operator<= is defined as a private member of Lhs then instantiating has_less_equal<Lhs> will produce a compiler error. For this reason has_less_equal cannot be used to determine whether a type has a public operator<= or not.
    struct A { private: void operator<=(const A&); };
    boost::has_less_equal<A>::value; // error: A::operator<=(const A&) is private
    
  • There is an issue if the operator exists only for type A and B is convertible to A. In this case, the compiler will report an ambiguous overload.
    struct A { };
    void operator<=(const A&, const A&);
    struct B { operator A(); };
    boost::has_less_equal<A>::value; // this is fine
    boost::has_less_equal<B>::value; // error: ambiguous overload
    
  • There is an issue when applying this trait to template classes. If operator<= is defined but does not bind for a given template type, it is still detected by the trait which returns true instead of false. Example:
    #include <boost/type_traits/has_less_equal.hpp>
    #include <iostream>
    
    template <class T>
    struct contains { T data; };
    
    template <class T>
    bool operator<=(const contains<T> &lhs, const contains<T> &rhs) {
    	return f(lhs.data, rhs.data);
    }
    
    class bad { };
    class good { };
    bool f(const good&, const good&) { }
    
    int main() {
    	std::cout<<std::boolalpha;
    	// works fine for contains<good>
    	std::cout<<boost::has_less_equal< contains< good > >::value<<'\n'; // true
    	contains<good> g;
    	g<=g; // ok
    	// does not work for contains<bad>
    	std::cout<<boost::has_less_equal< contains< bad > >::value<<'\n'; // true, should be false
    	contains<bad> b;
    	b<=b; // compile time error
    	return 0;
    }
    
  • volatile qualifier is not properly handled and would lead to undefined behavior

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