I am parsing a text based file to read variables from it. Existence of variables in the file is important, so I decided to write a template class which will hold both value of the variable (Value
) and its existence flag (Exists
).
template<class Type>
class MyVariable
{
public:
Type Value;
bool Exists;
MyVariable()
: Exists(false), Value(Type())
{
}
MyVariable(const Type & Value)
: Exists(true), Value(Value)
{
}
MyVariable(const Type && Value)
: Exists(true), Value(std::move(Value))
{
}
MyVariable(const Type & Value, bool Existance)
: Exists(Existance), Value(Value)
{
}
MyVariable(const Type && Value, bool Existance)
: Exists(Existance), Value(std::move(Value))
{
}
size_t size() const
{
return Value.size();
}
const MyVariable & operator=(const MyVariable & Another)
{
Value = Another.Value;
Exists = true;
}
const MyVariable & operator=(const MyVariable && Another)
{
Value = std::move(Another.Value);
Exists = true;
}
const Type & operator[](size_t Index) const
{
return Value[Index];
}
Type & operator[](size_t Index)
{
return Value[Index];
}
operator const Type & () const
{
Value;
}
operator Type &()
{
Value;
}
};
The stored variable type will occasionally be std::vector
, so I overloaded the subscript operator operator[]
to directly access the elements of the vector. So that I can make the Value
and Exists
members private.
I use this class like this in the code:
const MyVariable<std::vector<int>> AVector({11, 22, 33, 44 ,55});
for (size_t i=0; i<AVector.size(); i++)
{
std::wcout << L"Vector element #" << i << L" --> " << AVector.Value[i] << std::endl; // Works okay.
std::wcout << L"Vector element #" << i << L" --> " << AVector[i] << std::endl; // Gives error.
}
I get the following error message:
Error C2679 binary
'<<'
: no operator found which takes a right-hand operand of type'const std::vector<int,std::allocator<_Ty>>'
(or there is no acceptable conversion)
What am I doing wrong here?
TartanLlama's and songyuanyao's answers are correct only when the contained variable type (i.e.; ValueType
) is std::vector
. If we attempt to store a fundamental data type (e.g.; int
or float
), the compiler (MSVC14) gives the error below since there won't be any implicit subscript operator operator[]
or value_type
member type definition inside.
'InputFileVariable<bool,std::string>::value_type': is not a type name, static, or enumerator
'InputFileVariable<int,std::string>::value_type': is not a type name, static, or enumerator
'InputFileVariable<uintmax_t,std::string>::value_type': is not a type name, static, or enumerator
'InputFileVariable<float,std::string>::value_type': is not a type name, static, or enumerator
I found the solution by using function templates. I rewrote the subscript operators as templates, so that the compiler doesn't create the subscript member functions unless they are called. And since I call them only when the stored element is an std::vector
, it doesn't cause any problem with fundamental types.
My working final code is below.
#include <vector>
#include <string>
template<class ValueType, class KeyType = std::string>
class InputFileVariable
{
public:
const KeyType Key;
ValueType Value;
bool Exists;
InputFileVariable(KeyType && Key, ValueType && Value, bool Existance = false)
: Key (std::forward<KeyType> (Key)),
Value (std::forward<ValueType>(Value)),
Exists (Existance)
{
}
size_t size() const
{
return Value.size();
}
const InputFileVariable & operator=(InputFileVariable && Another)
{
Key = std::forward<InputFileVariable>(Another).Key;
Value = std::forward<InputFileVariable>(Another).Value;
Exists = true;
return *this;
}
template <class ElementType = ValueType::value_type>
const typename ElementType & operator[](size_t Index) const
{
return Value[Index];
}
template <class ElementType = ValueType::value_type>
typename ElementType & operator[](size_t Index)
{
return Value[Index];
}
operator const ValueType & () const
{
return Value;
}
operator ValueType & ()
{
return Value;
}
};
int wmain(int argc, wchar_t *argv[], wchar_t *envp[])
{
// Used with "std::vector":
InputFileVariable<std::vector<int>> MyVar1("MV1", {2, 4, 6, 8}, true);
const size_t SIZE = MyVar1.size();
std::cout << "Size = " << SIZE << std::endl;
int Temp = MyVar1[1];
MyVar1[1] = MyVar1[2]; // Here we call both the const and non-const operators.
MyVar1[2] = Temp;
for (size_t i=0; i<SIZE; i++)
{
std::cout << "MyVar1[" << i << "] = " << MyVar1[i] << std::endl;
}
// Used with "double":
InputFileVariable<double> MyVar2("MV2", 3.14, true);
std::cout << std::endl << "MyVar2 = " << MyVar2 << std::endl;
std::cout << std::endl;
_wsystem(L"timeout /t 60 /nobreak");
return 0;
}
Output:
Size = 4
MyVar1[0] = 2
MyVar1[1] = 6
MyVar1[2] = 4
MyVar1[3] = 8
MyVar2 = 3.14