Boost C++ Libraries

We can introspect a member function template or a static member function template of a user-defined type using the TTI functionality we shall now explain.

A function template of a user-defined type can either be a member function template or a static member function template. An example would be:

struct AType
  {
  template<class X,class Y,class Z> double AFuncTemplate(X x,Y * y,Z & z)
    { ...some code using x,y,z; return 0.0; }
  template<class X,int Y> static int AFuncTemplate(X x)
    { ...some code using x; return Y; }
  };

A function template AFuncTemplate is a member function template of the AType user-defined type and a different function template also called AFuncTemplate is a static member function template of the AType user-defined type.

In order to introspect either function template we use some theoretical valid instantiations of AFuncTemplate. An instantiation of a function template was previously explained in the topic "Introspecting function templates technique".

For the purposes of illustration the instantiation we will use is:

double AFuncTemplate<char,bool,int>(char,bool *,int &)

What we have now which the TTI will need in order to introspect the function template template<class X,class Y,class Z> double AFuncTemplate(X,Y *,Z &) within the AType struct is:

Generating the metafunction

As with all TTI functionality for introspecting entities within a user-defined type introspecting a function template is a two step process. The first process is using a macro to generate a metafunction. The macro for function templates is BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE. This macro takes the name of the member function template and the instantiated template parameters, the first two items in our list above:

BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE(AFuncTemplate,char,bool,int)

An alternative form for compilers which do not support variadic macros, and which will also work with compilers which do support variadic macros, is to specify the template parameters of the instantiation as a single macro argument using a Boost PP array:

BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE(AFuncTemplate,(3,(char,bool,int)))

The macro generates a metafunction based on the pattern of "has_function_template_'name_of_inner_function_template'", which in our example case would be has_function_template_AFuncTemplate.

Invoking the metafunction

To use this macro to test whether our function template exists the metafunction the macro creates is invoked with the enclosing type, the instantiated return type, and the instantiated function parameters, with the resulting value being a compile time boolean constant which is true if the function template exists, or false otherwise. We use each of our needed types as separate parameters, with the function parameters being enclosed in an MPL forward sequence. We would have:

has_function_template_AFuncTemplate<AType,double,boost::mpl::vector<char,bool *,int &> >::value

Introspecting the other function template

If we chose to try to introspect the second AFuncTemplate within AType we might choose an instantiation of:

int AFuncTemplate<long,7435>(long)

Our generation of the metafunction would then be:

BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE(AFuncTemplate,long,7435)

or

BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE(AFuncTemplate,(2,(long,7435)))

and our invocation of the metafunction would now be:

has_function_template_AFuncTemplate<AType,int,boost::mpl::vector<long> >::value

Other considerations

In our two examples above we could not introspect both function templates in the same namespace using the BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE macro as we would be generating two metafunctions with the same name, which would be has_function_template_AFuncTemplate, thus violating the One Definition Rule. The solution to this is the use of the complex macro form.

The macro for generating the metafunction for introspecting function templates also has, like other macros in the TTI library, a complex macro form where the end-user can directly specify the name of the metafunction to be generated. The corresponding macro is BOOST_TTI_TRAIT_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE, where the first parameter is the name of the metafunction to be generated, the second parameter is the member function template name, and the remaining parameters are the instantiated template parameters.

For our first example we could have

BOOST_TTI_TRAIT_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE(FirstMetafunction,char,bool,int)

or for the non-variadic macro form

BOOST_TTI_TRAIT_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE(FirstMetafunction,(3,(char,bool,int)))

which generates a metafunction whose name would be FirstMetafunction.

For our second example we could have

BOOST_TTI_TRAIT_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE(SecondMetafunction,AFuncTemplate,long,7435)

or for the non-variadic macro form

BOOST_TTI_TRAIT_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE(SecondMetafunction,AFuncTemplate,(2,(long,7435)))

which generates a metafunction whose name would be SecondMetafunction.

In all other respects the resulting metafunctions generated works exactly the same as when using the simpler macro form previously illustrated.

If you do use the simple macro form, which generates the metafunction name from the name of the function template you are introspecting, you can use a corresponding macro, taking the name of the function template as a single parameter, to create the appropriate metafunction name if you do not want to remember the pattern for generating the metafunction name. This macro name is BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE_GEN as in

BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION_TEMPLATE_GEN(AFuncTemplate)

which would generate the name has_function_template_AFuncTemplate.

When invoking the appropriate metafunction a fourth template argument may optionally be given which holds a Boost FunctionTypes tag type. This optional template argument is of much less use for function templates than for non-static member function templates since static member function templates, like static member functions, can not have cv-qualifications. which a number of Boost FunctionTypes tags provide. Nonetheless this optional Boost FunctionTypes tag is available for end-user use and may come in handy in certain rare cases, as when some calling convention qualification for the function template needs to be specified. If you do use a Boost FunctionTypes tag type for cv-qualification, such as boost::function_types::const_qualified to look for a function template it will be applied when introspecting for the member function template side of the match, but will ensure that introspecting for the static member function template side of the match will always fail. In either case no compiler error will be generated.