tti/doc/tti_detail_has_function.qbk

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[/
(C) Copyright Edward Diener 2012
Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0.
(See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at
http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt).
]
[section:tti_detail_has_function Introspecting an inner function]
The TTI macro [macroref BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION] introspects
an inner function of a class. The function can be either a member
function or a static member function.
BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION takes a single
parameter which is the name of an inner function whose existence
the programmer wants to check. The macro generates a metafunction
called "has_function_'name_of_inner_function'".
The metafunction can be invoked by passing it the enclosing type to introspect and a
signature for the function as separate template arguments. The signature for the
function consists of a return type, optional parameter types in the form of a boost::mpl
forward sequence of types, and an optional Boost FunctionTypes tag type. A
typical boost::mpl forward sequence of types is a boost::mpl::vector<>.
The metafunction returns a single type called 'type', which is a
boost::mpl::bool_. As a convenience the metafunction
returns the value of this type directly as a compile time bool constant
called 'value'. This is true or false depending on whether the inner
function, of the specified signature, exists or not.
[heading Generating the metafunction]
You generate the metafunction by invoking the macro with the name
of an inner function:
BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION(AnInnerFunction)
generates a metafunction called 'has_function_AnInnerFunction' in the current scope.
[heading Invoking the metafunction]
You invoke the metafunction by instantiating the template with an enclosing
type to introspect and the signature of the function as a series of template
parameters.
A return value called 'value' is a compile time bool constant.
has_function_AnInnerFunction
<
Enclosing_Type,
Function_ReturnType,
boost::mpl::vector<Function_ParameterTypes>, // optional, can be any mpl forward sequence
boost::function_types::SomeTagType // optional, can be any FunctionTypes tag type
>::value
[heading Examples]
First we generate metafunctions for various inner function names:
#include <boost/tti/has_function.hpp>
BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION(function1)
BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION(function2)
BOOST_TTI_HAS_FUNCTION(function3)
Next let us create some user-defined types we want to introspect.
struct AClass { };
struct Top
{
static int function1();
AClass function2(double,short *);
};
struct Top2
{
long function2(Top &,int,bool,short,float);
static Top * function3(long,int,AClass &);
};
Finally we invoke our metafunction and return our value.
This all happens at compile time, and can be used by
programmers doing compile time template metaprogramming.
has_function_function1<Top,int>::value; // true
has_function_function1<Top2,int>::value; // false
has_function_function2<Top,AClass,boost::mpl::vector<double,short *> >::value; // true
has_function_function2<Top2,AClass,boost::mpl::vector<double,short *> >::value; // false
has_function_function3<Top2,int>::value; // false
has_function_function3<Top2,Top *,boost::mpl::vector<long,int,AClass &> >::value; // true;
[heading Metafunction re-use]
The macro encodes only the name of the function
for which we are searching and the fact that we are
introspecting for a function within an enclosing type.
Because of this, once we create our metafunction for
introspecting a function by name, we can reuse the
metafunction for introspecting any enclosing type, having any
function, for that name.
[endsect]