Re: Defining a cast on a templated class

From:
Michael DOUBEZ <michael.doubez@free.fr>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:40:38 +0100
Message-ID:
<473ab251$0$3120$426a74cc@news.free.fr>
Alf P. Steinbach a 9crit :

* alan:

I'm creating a sort-of "wrapper" class which (partly) acts like a
variable. Something like:
template<class t>
class cell{
  t curval;
public:
  /*public for debugging only - will be private in final version*/
  inline cell<t>& set_value(t v){ curval = v; return *this;}
  inline t get_value(){ return curval;}
  /*actual public interface*/
  /*assign to this value*/
  inline cell<t>& operator=(t v){ return set_value(v);}
};
[snip: answered]

Basically the cell<> class would be like a spreadsheet cell - when I
assign a formula into it, its value will be automatically updated if
any of the cells in the formula are updated.

The way I intend to implement it is, I extend +-*/ and ?: so that if
any cells are in any parameters, they will instead return a new cell
which registers itself to the input cells. Something like:
template<class t>
cell<t>& operator+(cell<t> v1, t v2){
  sum_cell<t> *sum = new sum_cell<t>(v2);
  sum.register_yourself_to(v1); //when v1 is update()d, sum's update()
method is called
  return (cell<t>&) *sum;
}

If there is already some existing library that does (in some form) the
above, please inform me. I suspect there already is, somehow I have a
feeling I've seen it before.


Perhaps look at the Open Office source?


It is straightforward to use boost::function0<T>(), boost::ref() and
boost::bind() to compose your elements.

#include <boost/function.hpp>
#include <boost/bind.hpp>
#include <boost/ref.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <functional>
#include <cassert>

//use with boost::function0<T> to return constant value
template<class T>
T identity(const T& t)
{
       return t;
}

template<class T>
class cell
{
     public:
         //ensure get_value() always work
         cell<T>(const T& t=T())
         {
             set_value(t);
         }

         cell<T>& operator+=(cell<T>& c)
         {
             value= boost::bind(operation<std::plus<T> >,
                     *this,boost::ref(c));
             return *this;
         }

         //make a const version to use when rhs is local
         cell<T>& operator+=(const cell<T>& c)
         {
             value=boost::bind(operation<std::plus<T> >,
                     *this,c);
             return *this;
         }

         inline T get_value()const{ return value();}

     private:
         //generic operation on two cell
         template<typename Operator >
         static T operation(const cell<T>& lhs,const cell<T>& rhs)
         {
             return Operator()(lhs.get_value(),rhs.get_value());
         }

         inline cell<T>& set_value(const T& v)
         {
             value = boost::bind(&identity<T>,v);
             return *this;
         }

         boost::function0<T> value;
};

template<typename T>
cell<T> operator+(const cell<T>& lhs,const cell<T>& rhs)
{
     cell<T> ret(lhs);
     return ret+=rhs;
}
template<typename T>
cell<T> operator+(const cell<T>& lhs,cell<T>& rhs)
{
     cell<T> ret(lhs);
     return ret+=rhs;
}

typedef cell<int> icell;

int main()
{
  icell a(1);
  std::cout<<a.get_value()<<std::endl;
  assert(a.get_value()==1);

  icell b;
  std::cout<<b.get_value()<<std::endl;
  assert(b.get_value()==0);

  b=3;
  std::cout<<b.get_value()<<std::endl;
  assert(b.get_value()==3);

  icell c = a + b;
  std::cout<<c.get_value()<<std::endl;
  assert(c.get_value()==4);

  b=5;
  std::cout<<c.get_value()<<std::endl;
  assert(c.get_value()==6);

  c+=a;
  std::cout<<c.get_value()<<std::endl;
  assert(c.get_value()==7);

  icell d=c+icell(2);
  std::cout<<d.get_value()<<std::endl;
  assert(d.get_value()==9);
}

Michael

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