C++: Concepts, the Details

This is a cross-post from www.ModernesCpp.com.

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.

The Details

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

• Requirements for templates are part of the interface.
• The overloading of functions or specialisation of class templates can be based on concepts.
• We get 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

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 which 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 and reference is not an object. Maybe you wonder, what an object is.? A possible implementation der type-traits function std::is_object gives the answer:

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, or an array, or 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 that the template parameter T must 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 are based on fold expressions. all, any, and none requires from it type parameter T that is has to support the concept Arithmetic. Arithmetic essential means that T is either integral or floating-point.

The brand-new Microsoft compiler 19.23 supports partially as the only one the proposed concepts syntax.

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 that 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 just 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.

Specialisations

Concepts also support template specialisations.

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 the 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 in the declaration of a function.