Variadic typedefs, or “Bimaps done the C++0x way”

Question

Short question: Can I typedef a variadic argument pack? I need template struct Forward { typedef T... args; };.

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Long version

Answer 1

You can typedef a tuple. However, I wouldn't know how to then get the types back out again.

The easiest thing to do would be to just accept two full types.

Answer 2

You can achieve what you want by encapsulating the variadic argument pack in a tuple and later using the following two helper template structs to forward the actual variadic arguments:

template<typename PackR, typename PackL>
struct cat;

template<typename ...R, typename ...L>
struct cat<std::tuple<R...>, std::tuple<L...>>
{
        typedef std::tuple<R..., L...> type;
};

and

template<typename Pack, template<typename ...T> class Receiver>
struct Unpack;

template<typename ...Args, template<typename ...T> class Receiver>
struct Unpack<std::tuple<Args...>, Receiver>
{
        typedef Receiver<Args...> type;
};

your code sample would look like this:

#include <set>
#include <cstdint>
#include <tuple>

template<typename PackR, typename PackL>
struct Cat;

template<typename ...R, typename ...L>
struct Cat<std::tuple<R...>, std::tuple<L...>>
{
        typedef std::tuple<R..., L...> type;
};

template<typename Pack, template<typename ...T> class Receiver>
struct Unpack;

template<typename ...Args, template<typename ...T> class Receiver>
struct Unpack<std::tuple<Args...>, Receiver>
{
        typedef Receiver<Args...> type;
};

template<typename ...Args>
struct Forward
{    
        //typedef Args... args; // Problem here!!
        typedef std::tuple<Args...> args; // Workaround

        static const std::size_t size = sizeof...(Args);
};

template<typename S, typename T, 
        template<typename ...SArgs> class SCont, 
        template<typename ...TArgs> class TCont, 
        typename SForward = Forward<> ,
        typename TForward = Forward<>>
class Bimap
{
        //typedef SCont<S, typename SForward::args> left_type;
        //typedef TCont<T, typename TForward::args> right_type;
        typedef typename Unpack<typename Cat<std::tuple<S>, typename SForward::args>::type, SCont>::type left_type; //Workaround
        typedef typename Unpack<typename Cat<std::tuple<T>, typename TForward::args>::type, TCont>::type right_type; //Workaround

        template<typename LeftIt, typename RightIt> struct Relation; // to be implemented

        typedef Relation<typename left_type::const_iterator, typename right_type::const_iterator> relation_type;

};

int main()
{
    Bimap<int, int, std::set, std::set, Forward<std::less<int>> , Forward<std::greater<int>>> x;
}

which compiles just fine under gcc 4.6.0