Book Image

Template Metaprogramming with C++

By : Marius Bancila
5 (1)
Book Image

Template Metaprogramming with C++

5 (1)
By: Marius Bancila

Overview of this book

Learn how the metaprogramming technique enables you to create data structures and functions that allow computation to happen at compile time. With this book, you'll realize how templates help you avoid writing duplicate code and are key to creating generic libraries, such as the standard library or Boost, that can be used in a multitude of programs. The introductory chapters of this book will give you insights into the fundamentals of templates and metaprogramming. You'll then move on to practice writing complex templates and exploring advanced concepts such as template recursion, template argument deduction, forwarding references, type traits, and conditional compilation. Along the way, you'll learn how to write variadic templates and how to provide requirements to the template arguments with C++20 constraints and concepts. Finally, you'll apply your knowledge of C++ metaprogramming templates to implement various metaprogramming patterns and techniques. By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to write effective templates and implement metaprogramming in your everyday programming journey.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
1
Part 1: Core Template Concepts
5
Part 2: Advanced Template Features
9
Part 3: Applied Templates
Appendix: Closing Notes

Creating a custom container and iterator

The best way to understand how containers and iterators work is to experience them first-hand by creating your own. To avoid implementing something that already exists in the standard library, we will consider something different – more precisely, a circular buffer. This is a container that, when full, overwrites existing elements. We can think of different ways such a container could work; therefore, it’s important that we first define the requirements for it. These are as follows:

  • The container should have a fixed capacity that is known at compile-time. Therefore, there would be no runtime memory management.
  • The capacity is the number of elements the container can store, and the size is the number of elements it actually contains. When the size equals the capacity, we say the container is full.
  • When the container is full, adding a new element will overwrite the oldest element in the container.
  • Adding new elements...