Book Image

Modern C++ Programming Cookbook - Second Edition

By : Marius Bancila
5 (1)
Book Image

Modern C++ Programming Cookbook - Second Edition

5 (1)
By: Marius Bancila

Overview of this book

C++ has come a long way to be one of the most widely used general-purpose languages that is fast, efficient, and high-performance at its core. The updated second edition of Modern C++ Programming Cookbook addresses the latest features of C++20, such as modules, concepts, coroutines, and the many additions to the standard library, including ranges and text formatting. The book is organized in the form of practical recipes covering a wide range of problems faced by modern developers. The book also delves into the details of all the core concepts in modern C++ programming, such as functions and classes, iterators and algorithms, streams and the file system, threading and concurrency, smart pointers and move semantics, and many others. It goes into the performance aspects of programming in depth, teaching developers how to write fast and lean code with the help of best practices. Furthermore, the book explores useful patterns and delves into the implementation of many idioms, including pimpl, named parameter, and attorney-client, teaching techniques such as avoiding repetition with the factory pattern. There is also a chapter dedicated to unit testing, where you are introduced to three of the most widely used libraries for C++: Boost.Test, Google Test, and Catch2. By the end of the book, you will be able to effectively leverage the features and techniques of C++11/14/17/20 programming to enhance the performance, scalability, and efficiency of your applications.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
13
Bibliography
14
Other Books You May Enjoy
15
Index

Using std::any to store any value

C++ does not have a hierarchical type system like other languages (such as C# or Java) and, therefore, it can't store multiple types of a value in a single variable like it is possible to with type Object in .NET and Java or natively in JavaScript. Developers have long used void* for that purpose, but this only helps us store pointers to anything and is not type-safe. Depending on the end goal, alternatives can include templates or overloaded functions. However, C++17 has introduced a standard type-safe container, called std::any, that can hold a single value of any type.

Getting ready

std::any has been designed based on boost::any and is available in the <any> header. If you are familiar with boost::any and have used it in your code, you can migrate it seamlessly to std::any.

How to do it...

Use the following operations to work with std::any:

  • To store values, use the constructor or assign them directly to an...