TimelineCpp20Concepts

C++20: Concepts, the Details

In my last post, C++20: Two Extremes and the Rescue with Concepts, I gave the first motivation for concepts. Concepts put semantic constraints on template parameters. Today, I present different use-cases for concepts in a compact form.

 TimelineCpp20Concepts

The Details

Just keep it in mind: What are the advantages of concepts?

  • Requirements for templates are part of the interface.
  • The overloading of functions or specialization of class templates can be based on concepts.
  • We get an improved error message because the compiler compares the requirements of the template parameter with the actual template arguments
  • You can use predefined concepts or define your own.
  • The usage of auto and concepts is unified. Instead of auto, you can use a concept.
  • If a function declaration uses a concept, it automatically becomes a function template. Writing function templates is, therefore, as easy as writing a function.

This post is about the first three points. Let me show many different usages of concepts:

Three Ways

There are three ways to use the concept Sortable. For simplicity reasons, I only show the declaration of the function template.

Requires Clause

template<typename Cont>
    requires Sortable<Cont>
void sort(Cont& container);

Trailing Requires Clause

template<typename Cont>
void sort(Cont& container) requires Sortable<Cont>;

Constrained Template Parameters

 

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    template<Sortable Cont>
    void sort(Cont& container)
    

     

    The algorithm sort requires, in this case, that the container is sortable. Sortable has to be a constant expression and a predicate.

    Classes

    You can define a class template that only accepts objects.

    template<Object T>
    class MyVector{};
    
    MyVector<int> v1;   // OK
    MyVector<int&> v2;  // ERROR: int& does not satisfy the constraint Object
    

     

    The compiler complains that a reference is not an object. Maybe you wonder what an object is.? A possible implementation of the type-traits function std::is_object answers:

    template< class T>
    struct is_object : std::integral_constant<bool,
                         std::is_scalar<T>::value ||
                         std::is_array<T>::value  ||
                         std::is_union<T>::value  ||
                         std::is_class<T>::value> {};
    

     

    An object is either a scalar, an array, a union, or a class.

    Member Functions

    template<Object T>
    class MyVector{
        ... 
        void push_back(const T& e) requires Copyable<T>{}
        ...
    };
    

     

    In this case, the member function requires the template parameter T to be copyable.

    Variadic Templates

     // allAnyNone.cpp

    #include <iostream>
    #include <type_traits> template<typename T> concept Arithmetic = std::is_arithmetic<T>::value; template<Arithmetic... Args> bool all(Args... args) { return (... && args); } template<Arithmetic... Args> bool any(Args... args) { return (... || args); } template<Arithmetic... Args> bool none(Args... args) { return !(... || args); } int main(){ std::cout << std::boolalpha << std::endl; std::cout << "all(5, true, 5.5, false): " << all(5, true, 5.5, false) << std::endl; std::cout << "any(5, true, 5.5, false): " << any(5, true, 5.5, false) << std::endl; std::cout << "none(5, true, 5.5, false): " << none(5, true, 5.5, false) << std::endl; }

     

    You can use concepts in variadic templates.  The definition of the function templates is based on fold expressions. all, any, and none require from it type parameter T that has to support the concept Arithmetic. Arithmetic essential means that T is either integral or floating-point.

    The brand-new Microsoft compiler 19.23 partially supports the concepts syntax.

    allAnyNone

    More Requirements

    Of course, you can use more than one requirement for the template parameters.

    template <SequenceContainer S,   
              EqualityComparable<value_type<S>> T>
    Iterator_type<S> find(S&& seq, const T& val){
        ...
    }
    

     

    The function template find requires that the container S is a SequenceContainer and its elements are EqualityComparable.

    Overloading

    std::advance(iter, n) puts its iterator iter n position further. Depending on the iterator, the implementation can use pointer arithmetic or go n times further. In the first case, the execution time is constant; in the second case, the execution time depends on the stepsize n. Thanks to concepts, you can overload std::advance on the iterator category.

    template<InputIterator I>
    void advance(I& iter, int n){...}
    
    template<BidirectionalIterator I>
    void advance(I& iter, int n){...}
    
    template<RandomAccessIterator I>
    void advance(I& iter, int n){...}
    
    // usage
    
    std::vector<int> vec{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9};
    auto vecIt = vec.begin();
    std::advance(vecIt, 5);       //  RandomAccessIterator
    
    std::list<int> lst{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9};
    auto lstIt = lst.begin();
    std::advance(lstIt, 5);       //  BidirectionalIterator
    
    std::forward_list<int> forw{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9};
    auto forwIt = forw.begin();
    std::advance(forwIt, 5);      //  InputIterator
    

     

    Based on the iterator category, the containers std::vector, std::list, and std::forward_list support, the best fitting std::advance implementation is used.

    Specializations

    Concepts also support template specializations.

    template<typename T>
    class MyVector{};
    
    template<Object T>
    class MyVector{};
    
    MyVector<int> v1;     // Object T
    MyVector<int&> v2;    // typename T
    

     

    • MyVector<int&> goes to the unconstrained template parameter.

    • MyVector<int> goes to the constrained template parameter.

    What’s next?

    My next post is about syntactical unification in C++20. With C++20, you can use a constrained placeholder (concept) in each place. You could use an unconstrained placeholder (auto) in C++11. But this is not the end of the unification. Defining a template becomes with C++20 a piece of cake. Just use a constrained or an unconstrained placeholder to declare a function.

     

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