How can I emulate destructuring in C++?

Solution 1:

In C++17 this is called structured bindings, which allows for the following:

struct animal {
    std::string species;
    int weight;
    std::string sound;
};

int main()
{
  auto pluto = animal { "dog", 23, "woof" };

  auto [ species, weight, sound ] = pluto;

  std::cout << "species=" << species << " weight=" << weight << " sound=" << sound << "\n";
}

Solution 2:

For the specific case of std::tuple (or std::pair) objects, C++ offers the std::tie function which looks similar:

std::tuple<int, bool, double> my_obj {1, false, 2.0};
// later on...
int x;
bool y;
double z;
std::tie(x, y, z) = my_obj;
// or, if we don't want all the contents:
std::tie(std::ignore, y, std::ignore) = my_obj;

I am not aware of an approach to the notation exactly as you present it.

Solution 3:

Mostly there with std::map and std::tie:

#include <iostream>
#include <tuple>
#include <map>
using namespace std;

// an abstact object consisting of key-value pairs
struct thing
{
    std::map<std::string, std::string> kv;
};


int main()
{
    thing animal;
    animal.kv["species"] = "dog";
    animal.kv["sound"] = "woof";

    auto species = std::tie(animal.kv["species"], animal.kv["sound"]);

    std::cout << "The " << std::get<0>(species) << " says " << std::get<1>(species) << '\n';

    return 0;
}