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C++11 variadic std::function parameter

Asked 2012-02-11T17:16:20.173
29

A function named test takes std::function<> as its parameter.

template<typename R, typename ...A>
void test(std::function<R(A...)> f)
{
    // ...
}

But, if I do the following:

void foo(int n) { /* ... */ }

// ...

test(foo);

Compiler(gcc 4.6.1) says no matching function for call to test(void (&)(int)).

To make the last line test(foo) compiles and works properly, how can I modify the test() function? In test() function, I need f with type of std::function<>.

I mean, is there any template tricks to let compiler determine the signature of function(foo in example), and convert it to std::function<void(int)> automatically?

EDIT

I want to make this work for lambdas (both stateful and stateless) as well.

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1 Answer

4

It's usually ill-advised to accept std::function by value unless you are at 'binary delimitation' (e.g. dynamic library, 'opaque' API) since as you've just witnessed they play havoc with overloading. When a function does in fact take an std::function by value then it's often the burden of the caller to construct the object to avoid the overloading problems (if the function is overloaded at all).

Since however you've written a template, it's likely the case that you're not using std::function (as a parameter type) for the benefits of type-erasure. If what you want to do is inspecting arbitrary functors then you need some traits for that. E.g. Boost.FunctionTypes has traits such as result_type and parameter_types. A minimal, functional example:

#include <functional>

#include <boost/function_types/result_type.hpp>
#include <boost/function_types/parameter_types.hpp>
#include <boost/function_types/function_type.hpp>

template<typename Functor>
void test(Functor functor) // accept arbitrary functor!
{
    namespace ft = boost::function_types;

    typedef typename ft::result_type<Functor>::type result_type;
    typedef ft::parameter_types<Functor> parameter_types;
    typedef typename boost::mpl::push_front<
        parameter_types
        , result_type
    >::type sequence_type;
    // sequence_type is now a Boost.MPL sequence in the style of
    // mpl::vector<int, double, long> if the signature of the
    // analyzed functor were int(double, long)

    // We now build a function type out of the MPL sequence
    typedef typename ft::function_type<sequence_type>::type function_type;

    std::function<function_type> function = std::move(functor);
}

As a final note, I do not recommend introspecting functors (i.e. prodding for their result type and argument types) in the general case as that simply

answered 2012-02-12T07:52:38.150

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