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

Chapter 4: Advanced Template Concepts

In the previous chapters, we learned the core fundamentals of C++ templates. At this point, you should be able to write templates that are perhaps not very complex. However, there are many more details concerning templates, and this chapter is dedicated to these more advanced topics. These include the following topics that we address next:

  • Understanding name binding and dependent names
  • Exploring template recursion
  • Understanding template argument deduction
  • Learning forwarding references and perfect forwarding
  • Using the decltype specifier and the std::declval type operator
  • Understanding friendship in templates

On completing this chapter, you will acquire a deeper knowledge of these advanced template concepts and be able to understand and write more complex template code.

We will start this chapter by learning about name binding and dependent names.