"unpacking" a tuple to call a matching function pointer

I'm trying to store in a std::tuple a varying number of values, which will later be used as arguments for a call to a function pointer which matches the stored types.

I've created a simplified example showing the problem I'm struggling to solve:

#include <iostream>
#include <tuple>

void f(int a, double b, void* c) {
  std::cout << a << ":" << b << ":" << c << std::endl;
}

template <typename ...Args>
struct save_it_for_later {
  std::tuple<Args...> params;
  void (*func)(Args...);

  void delayed_dispatch() {
     // How can I "unpack" params to call func?
     func(std::get<0>(params), std::get<1>(params), std::get<2>(params));
     // But I *really* don't want to write 20 versions of dispatch so I'd rather 
     // write something like:
     func(params...); // Not legal
  }
};

int main() {
  int a=666;
  double b = -1.234;
  void *c = NULL;

  save_it_for_later<int,double,void*> saved = {
                                 std::tuple<int,double,void*>(a,b,c), f};
  saved.delayed_dispatch();
}

Normally for problems involving std::tuple or variadic templates I'd write another template like template <typename Head, typename ...Tail> to recursively evaluate all of the types one by one, but I can't see a way of doing that for dispatching a function call.

The real motivation for this is somewhat more complex and it's mostly just a learning exercise anyway. You can assume that I'm handed the tuple by contract from another interface, so can't be changed but that the desire to unpack it into a function call is mine. This rules out using std::bind as a cheap way to sidestep the underlying problem.

What's a clean way of dispatching the call using the std::tuple, or an alternative better way of achieving the same net result of storing/forwarding some values and a function pointer until an arbitrary future point?

Solution 1:

You need to build a parameter pack of numbers and unpack them

template<int ...>
struct seq { };

template<int N, int ...S>
struct gens : gens<N-1, N-1, S...> { };

template<int ...S>
struct gens<0, S...> {
  typedef seq<S...> type;
};


// ...
  void delayed_dispatch() {
     callFunc(typename gens<sizeof...(Args)>::type());
  }

  template<int ...S>
  void callFunc(seq<S...>) {
     func(std::get<S>(params) ...);
  }
// ...

Solution 2:

The C++17 solution is simply to use std::apply:

auto f = [](int a, double b, std::string c) { std::cout<<a<<" "<<b<<" "<<c<< std::endl; };
auto params = std::make_tuple(1,2.0,"Hello");
std::apply(f, params);

Just felt that should be stated once in an answer in this thread (after it already appeared in one of the comments).

The basic C++14 solution is still missing in this thread. EDIT: No, it's actually there in the answer of Walter.

This function is given:

void f(int a, double b, void* c)
{
      std::cout << a << ":" << b << ":" << c << std::endl;
}

Call it with the following snippet:

template<typename Function, typename Tuple, size_t ... I>
auto call(Function f, Tuple t, std::index_sequence<I ...>)
{
     return f(std::get<I>(t) ...);
}

template<typename Function, typename Tuple>
auto call(Function f, Tuple t)
{
    static constexpr auto size = std::tuple_size<Tuple>::value;
    return call(f, t, std::make_index_sequence<size>{});
}

Example:

int main()
{
    std::tuple<int, double, int*> t;
    //or std::array<int, 3> t;
    //or std::pair<int, double> t;
    call(f, t);    
}

DEMO

Solution 3:

This is a complete compilable version of Johannes' solution to awoodland's question, in the hope it may be useful to somebody. This was tested with a snapshot of g++ 4.7 on Debian squeeze.

###################
johannes.cc
###################
#include <tuple>
#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::endl;

template<int ...> struct seq {};

template<int N, int ...S> struct gens : gens<N-1, N-1, S...> {};

template<int ...S> struct gens<0, S...>{ typedef seq<S...> type; };

double foo(int x, float y, double z)
{
  return x + y + z;
}

template <typename ...Args>
struct save_it_for_later
{
  std::tuple<Args...> params;
  double (*func)(Args...);

  double delayed_dispatch()
  {
    return callFunc(typename gens<sizeof...(Args)>::type());
  }

  template<int ...S>
  double callFunc(seq<S...>)
  {
    return func(std::get<S>(params) ...);
  }
};

#pragma GCC diagnostic push
#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wunused-parameter"
#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wunused-variable"
#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wunused-but-set-variable"
int main(void)
{
  gens<10> g;
  gens<10>::type s;
  std::tuple<int, float, double> t = std::make_tuple(1, 1.2, 5);
  save_it_for_later<int,float, double> saved = {t, foo};
  cout << saved.delayed_dispatch() << endl;
}
#pragma GCC diagnostic pop

One can use the following SConstruct file

#####################
SConstruct
#####################
#!/usr/bin/python

env = Environment(CXX="g++-4.7", CXXFLAGS="-Wall -Werror -g -O3 -std=c++11")
env.Program(target="johannes", source=["johannes.cc"])

On my machine, this gives

g++-4.7 -o johannes.o -c -Wall -Werror -g -O3 -std=c++11 johannes.cc
g++-4.7 -o johannes johannes.o

Solution 4:

Here is a C++14 solution.

template <typename ...Args>
struct save_it_for_later
{
  std::tuple<Args...> params;
  void (*func)(Args...);

  template<std::size_t ...I>
  void call_func(std::index_sequence<I...>)
  { func(std::get<I>(params)...); }
  void delayed_dispatch()
  { call_func(std::index_sequence_for<Args...>{}); }
};

This still needs one helper function (call_func). Since this is a common idiom, perhaps the standard should support it directly as std::call with possible implementation

// helper class
template<typename R, template<typename...> class Params, typename... Args, std::size_t... I>
R call_helper(std::function<R(Args...)> const&func, Params<Args...> const&params, std::index_sequence<I...>)
{ return func(std::get<I>(params)...); }

// "return func(params...)"
template<typename R, template<typename...> class Params, typename... Args>
R call(std::function<R(Args...)> const&func, Params<Args...> const&params)
{ return call_helper(func,params,std::index_sequence_for<Args...>{}); }

Then our delayed dispatch becomes

template <typename ...Args>
struct save_it_for_later
{
  std::tuple<Args...> params;
  std::function<void(Args...)> func;
  void delayed_dispatch()
  { std::call(func,params); }
};

Solution 5:

This is a bit complicated to achieve (even though it is possible). I advise you to use a library where this is already implemented, namely Boost.Fusion (the invoke function). As a bonus, Boost Fusion works with C++03 compilers as well.