Why no emplacement iterators in C++11 or C++14?
Is there any technical reason we couldn't have front_emplacer, back_emplacer, and emplacer?
No, there is no technical reason. As proof, here is a complete implementation of back_emplacer
with a demo of your Use Case 1...
#include <iterator>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
template<class Container>
class back_emplace_iterator : public std::iterator< std::output_iterator_tag,
void, void, void, void >
{
protected:
Container* container;
public:
typedef Container container_type;
explicit back_emplace_iterator(Container& x) : container(&x) {}
template<class T>
back_emplace_iterator<Container>&
operator=(T&& t)
{
container->emplace_back(std::forward<T>(t));
return *this;
}
back_emplace_iterator& operator*() { return *this; }
back_emplace_iterator& operator++() { return *this; }
back_emplace_iterator& operator++(int) { return *this; }
};
template< class Container >
inline back_emplace_iterator<Container>
back_emplacer( Container& c )
{
return back_emplace_iterator<Container>(c);
}
struct Demo
{
int i;
Demo(int i) : i(i) {}
};
int main()
{
std::vector<int> x = {1,2,3,4,5};
std::vector<Demo> y;
std::copy(x.begin(), x.end(), back_emplacer(y));
for (auto d : y)
std::cout << d.i << std::endl;
}
Possible Known Issue: Does the universal reference of operator=
hide an implicitly generated copy/move operator=
? If so these need to be explicitly defined in a way that beats the universal reference in overload resolution.
Your main use case is already covered by inserter
, back_inserter
and front_inserter
. There is already a value_type &&
overload of operator=
that will move into the container. The only thing emplacer
could do over inserter
is call explicit constructors.
Compare the common overloads of container::insert
, container::push_back
and container::push_front
to container::emplace
, container::emplace_back
and container::emplace_front
iterator insert( const_iterator pos, const value_type & value );
iterator insert( const_iterator pos, value_type && value );
template< class... Args >
iterator emplace( const_iterator pos, Args&&... args );
void push_back( const value_type & value );
void push_back( value_type && value );
template< class... Args >
void emplace_back( Args&&... args );
void push_front( const value_type & value );
void push_front( value_type && value );
template< class... Args >
void emplace_front( Args&&... args );
Each of the emplace
variants takes a pack of arguments with which to construct the value. operator =
takes exactly one argument. You could write an emplacer
that took a tuple of arguments.
template<class Container>
class back_emplace_iterator : public std::iterator< std::output_iterator_tag,
void, void, void, void >
{
protected:
Container* container;
public:
typedef Container container_type;
explicit back_emplace_iterator(Container& x) : container(&x) {}
template<typename ... Args>
back_emplace_iterator<Container>&
operator=(std::tuple<Args&&...> args)
{
std::apply(Container::emplace_back, std::tuple_cat(std::tie(*container), std::forward<std::tuple<Args&&...>>(args)));
return *this;
}
back_emplace_iterator& operator*() { return *this; }
back_emplace_iterator& operator++() { return *this; }
back_emplace_iterator& operator++(int) { return *this; }
};