c++hashstlunordered-setstdhash

How to specialize std::hash for type from other library


So the library I use has an enum (say it's named LibEnum). I need to have an std::unordered_set of LibEnum, but I get compilation error that there is no specialized std::hash for it. I could easily write it and just return the number of value (first element is 0, second 1 etc), but where exactly I should put this specialization and how should it look like? I can't modify the library sources.

  enum LibEnum { A, B, C, D};
  std::unordered_set <LibEnum> mySet;
  //need std::hash for LibEnum
  //how should it look like?

Solution

  • You can just specialise std::hash for your type:

    namespace std {
        template <>
        struct hash<FullyQualified::LibEnum> {
            size_t operator ()(FullyQualified::LibEnum value) const {
                return static_cast<size_t>(value);
            }
        };
    }
    

    Alternatively, you can define a hash type where ever you like and just provide it as the additional template argument when instantiating std::unordered_map<FooEnum>:

    // Anywhere in your code prior to usage:
    
    struct myhash {
        std::size_t operator ()(LibEnum value) const {
            return static_cast<std::size_t>(value);
        }
    };
    
    // Usage:
    
    std::unordered_map<LibEnum, T, myhash> some_hash;
    

    Neither methods require you to modify the library.