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

Variadic alias templates

Everything that can be templatized can also be made variadic. An alias template is an alias (another name) for a family of types. A variadic alias template is a name for a family of types with a variable number of template parameters. With the knowledge accumulated so far, it should be fairly trivial to write alias templates. Let's see an example:

template <typename T, typename... Args>
struct foo 
{
};
template <typename... Args>
using int_foo = foo<int, Args...>;

The class template foo is variadic and takes at least one type template argument. int_foo, on the other hand, is only a different name for a family of types instantiated from the foo type with int as the first type template arguments. These could be used as follows:

foo<double, char, int> f1;
foo<int, char, double> f2;
int_foo<char, double> f3;
static_assert(std::is_same_v<decltype(f2), decltype(f3)>);

In this snippet, f1 on one hand and...