logic/doc/tribool.boostbook
Antony Polukhin e1f476eaba Docs update
2014-07-31 18:11:11 +04:00

232 lines
9.1 KiB
XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE library PUBLIC "-//Boost//DTD BoostBook XML V1.0//EN"
"http://www.boost.org/tools/boostbook/dtd/boostbook.dtd">
<library name="Tribool" dirname="logic" id="tribool"
last-revision="$Date: 2007/05/03 03:28:53 $" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<libraryinfo>
<author>
<firstname>Douglas</firstname>
<surname>Gregor</surname>
<email>dgregor -at- cs.indiana.edu</email>
</author>
<copyright>
<year>2002</year>
<year>2003</year>
<year>2004</year>
<holder>Douglas Gregor</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
<para>Use, modification and distribution is subject to the Boost
Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file
<filename>LICENSE_1_0.txt</filename> or copy at <ulink
url="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</ulink>)</para>
</legalnotice>
<librarypurpose>Three-state boolean type</librarypurpose>
<librarycategory name="category:misc"/>
</libraryinfo>
<title>Boost.Tribool</title>
<section id="tribool.introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>The 3-state boolean library contains a single class,
<code><classname>boost::logic::tribool</classname></code>, along with
support functions and operator overloads that implement 3-state
boolean logic. </para>
</section>
<section id="tribool.tutorial">
<title>Tutorial</title>
<using-namespace name="boost::logic"/>
<section>
<title>Basic usage</title>
<para> The <code><classname>tribool</classname></code> class acts
like the built-in <code>bool</code> type, but for 3-state boolean
logic. The three states are <code>true</code>, <code>false</code>,
and <code><functionname>indeterminate</functionname></code>, where
the first two states are equivalent to those of the C++
<code>bool</code> type and the last state represents an unknown
boolean value (that may be <code>true</code> or
<code>false</code>, we don't know).</para>
<para> The <code><classname>tribool</classname></code> class
supports conversion from <code>bool</code> values and literals
along with its own
<code><functionname>indeterminate</functionname></code>
keyword:</para>
<programlisting><classname>tribool</classname> b(true);
b = false;
b = <functionname>indeterminate</functionname>;
<classname>tribool</classname> b2(b);</programlisting>
<para> <code><classname>tribool</classname></code> supports
conversions to <code>bool</code> for use in conditional
statements. The conversion to <code>bool</code> will be
<code>true</code> when the value of the
<code><classname>tribool</classname></code> is always true, and
<code>false</code> otherwise. Consequently, the following idiom
may be used to determine which of the three states a
<code><classname>tribool</classname></code> currently
holds:</para>
<programlisting><classname>tribool</classname> b = some_operation();
if (b) {
// b is true
}
else if (!b) {
// b is false
}
else {
// b is indeterminate
}</programlisting>
<para> <code><classname>tribool</classname></code> supports the
3-state logic operators <code>!</code> (negation),
<code>&amp;&amp;</code> (AND), and <code>||</code> (OR), with
<code>bool</code> and <code><classname>tribool</classname></code>
values. For instance:</para>
<programlisting><classname>tribool</classname> x = some_op();
<classname>tribool</classname> y = some_other_op();
if (x &amp;&amp; y) {
// both x and y are true
}
else if (!(x &amp;&amp; y)) {
// either x or y is false
}
else {
// neither x nor y is false, but we don't know that both are true
if (x || y) {
// either x or y is true
}
}</programlisting>
<para> Similarly, <code><classname>tribool</classname></code>
supports 3-state equality comparisons via the operators
<code>==</code> and <code>!=</code>. These operators differ from
"normal" equality operators in C++ because they return a
<code><classname>tribool</classname></code>, because potentially we
might not know the result of a comparison (try to compare
<code>true</code> and
<code><functionname>indeterminate</functionname></code>). For
instance:</para>
<programlisting><classname>tribool</classname> x(true);
<classname>tribool</classname> y(<functionname>indeterminate</functionname>);
assert(x == x); // okay, x == x returns true
assert(x == true); // okay, can compare <classname>tribool</classname>s and bools</programlisting>
<para> The <code><functionname>indeterminate</functionname></code> keyword (representing the
<functionname>indeterminate</functionname>&nbsp;<code><classname>tribool</classname></code> value)
doubles as a function to check if the value of a
<code><classname>tribool</classname></code> is indeterminate,
e.g.,</para>
<programlisting><classname>tribool</classname> x = try_to_do_something_tricky();
if (<functionname>indeterminate</functionname>(x)) {
// value of x is indeterminate
}
else {
// report success or failure of x
}</programlisting>
<para> All the logical operators and methods of <code><classname>tribool</classname></code> are marked
as <code>constexpr</code> in C++11. It means that <code><classname>tribool</classname></code> can
be used in compile time expressions:</para>
<programlisting>constexpr <classname>tribool</classname> x = (tribool(true) || tribool(indeterminate));
<functionname>static_assert</functionname>(x, "Must be true!");
</programlisting>
<note>Some compilers may have troubles with evaluating <code>tribool::operator safe_bool()</code> at compile time.</note>
</section>
<section>
<title>Renaming the indeterminate state</title>
<para> Users may introduce additional keywords for the indeterminate
value in addition to the implementation-supplied
<code><functionname>indeterminate</functionname></code> using the
<code><macroname>BOOST_TRIBOOL_THIRD_STATE</macroname></code>
macro. For instance, the following macro instantiation (at the
global scope) will introduce the keyword <code>maybe</code> as a
synonym for <code><functionname>indeterminate</functionname></code>
(also residing in the <code>boost</code> namespace):</para>
<programlisting><macroname>BOOST_TRIBOOL_THIRD_STATE</macroname>(maybe)
<classname>tribool</classname> x = maybe;
if (maybe(x)) { /* ... */ }</programlisting>
</section>
<section>
<title><code>tribool</code> input/output</title>
<para><code><classname>tribool</classname></code> objects may be
read from and written to streams by including the
<headername>boost/logic/tribool_io.hpp</headername> header in a
manner very similar to <code>bool</code> values. When the
<code>boolalpha</code> flag is not set on the input/output stream,
the integral values 0, 1, and 2 correspond to <code>tribool</code>
values <code>false</code>, <code>true</code>, and
<code>indeterminate</code>, respectively. When
<code>boolalpha</code> is set on the stream, arbitrary strings can
be used to represent the three values, the default being "false",
"true", and "indeterminate". For instance:</para>
<programlisting><classname>tribool</classname> x;
cin &gt;&gt; x; // Type "0", "1", or "2" to get false, true, or indeterminate
cout &lt;&lt; boolalpha &lt;&lt; x; // Produces "false", "true", or "indeterminate"</programlisting>
<para><code><classname>tribool</classname></code> input and output
is sensitive to the stream's current locale. The strings associated
with false and true values are contained in the standard
<code><classname>std::numpunct</classname></code> facet, and the
string naming the indeterminate type is contained in the
<code><classname>indeterminate_name</classname></code> facet. To
replace the name of the indeterminate state, you need to imbue your
stream with a local containing a
<code><classname>indeterminate_name</classname></code> facet, e.g.:</para>
<programlisting><macroname>BOOST_TRIBOOL_THIRD_STATE</macroname>(maybe)
locale global;
locale test_locale(global, new <classname>indeterminate_name</classname>&lt;char&gt;("maybe"));
cout.imbue(test_locale);
<classname>tribool</classname> x(maybe);
cout &lt;&lt; boolalpha &lt;&lt; x &lt;&lt; endl; // Prints "maybe"</programlisting>
<para>If you C++ standard library implementation does not support
locales, <code>tribool</code> input/output will still work, but you
will be unable to customize the strings printed/parsed when
<code>boolalpha</code> is set.</para>
</section>
</section>
<xi:include href="reference.xml"/>
<testsuite id="tribool.tests">
<run-test filename="tribool_test.cpp">
<purpose><para>Test all features of the
<code><classname>boost::logic::tribool</classname></code>
class.</para></purpose>
</run-test>
<run-test filename="tribool_rename_test.cpp">
<purpose><para>Test the use of the
<code><macroname>BOOST_TRIBOOL_THIRD_STATE</macroname></code>
macro.</para></purpose>
</run-test>
<run-test filename="tribool_io_test.cpp">
<purpose><para>Test tribool input/output.</para></purpose>
</run-test>
</testsuite>
</library>