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<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type"></a><a class="link" href="tti_nested_type.html" title="Nested Types">Nested
    Types</a>
</h2></div></div></div>
<p>
      Besides the functionality of the TTI library which queries whether some inner
      element of a given name within a type exists, the library also includes functionality
      for generating a nested type if it exists, else a marker type if it does not
      exist. By marker type is meant a type either internally created by the library,
      with no functionality, or designated by the end-user to represent the same
      idea.
    </p>
<p>
      First I will explain the syntax and use of this functionality and then the
      reason it exists in the library.
    </p>
<p>
      The functionality is a metafunction created by the macro <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE.html" title="Macro BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</a></code>.
      The macro takes a single parameter, which is the name of a nested type. We
      will call this our 'named type'. The macro generates a metafunction called
      <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">member_type_</span><span class="char">'named_type'</span></code>
      which, passed an enclosing type, returns the named type if it exists, else
      a marker type if it does not.
    </p>
<p>
      As with our other macros we can use the alternative form of the macro <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_TT_idm46187185643920.html" title="Macro BOOST_TTI_TRAIT_MEMBER_TYPE">BOOST_TTI_TRAIT_MEMBER_TYPE</a></code> to
      pass first the name of the metafunction to be generated and then the name of
      the 'named type'. After that the functionality of our resulting metafunction
      is exactly the same.
    </p>
<p>
      Its general explanation is given as:
    </p>
<div class="table">
<a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.tbmacronested"></a><p class="title"><b>Table&#160;1.3.&#160;TTI Nested Type Macro Metafunction</b></p>
<div class="table-contents"><table class="table" summary="TTI Nested Type Macro Metafunction">
<colgroup>
<col>
<col>
<col>
<col>
</colgroup>
<thead><tr>
<th>
              <p>
                Inner Element
              </p>
            </th>
<th>
              <p>
                Macro
              </p>
            </th>
<th>
              <p>
                Template
              </p>
            </th>
<th>
              <p>
                Specific Header File
              </p>
            </th>
</tr></thead>
<tbody><tr>
<td>
              <p>
                Type
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE.html" title="Macro BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</a></code>(name)
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">member_type_</span><span class="char">'name'</span></code>
              </p>
              <p>
                class T = enclosing type
              </p>
              <p>
                class U = (optional) marker type
              </p>
              <p>
                returns = the type of 'name' if it exists, else a marker type, as
                the typedef 'type'.
              </p>
              <p>
                The invoked metafunction also holds the marker type as the typedef
                'boost_tti_marker_type'. This is done for convenience so that the
                marker type does not have to be remembered.
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../header/boost/tti/member_type_hpp.html" title="Header &lt;boost/tti/member_type.hpp&gt;">member_type.hpp</a></code>
              </p>
            </td>
</tr></tbody>
</table></div>
</div>
<br class="table-break"><p>
      The marker type is purely optional. If not specified a type internal to the
      TTI library, which has no functionality, is used. Unless there is a specific
      reason for the end-user to provide his own marker type, he should let the TTI
      library use its own internal marker type.
    </p>
<p>
      A simple example of this functionality would be:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="preprocessor">#include</span> <span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">tti</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">member_type</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">hpp</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>

<span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">ANamedType</span><span class="special">)</span>

<span class="keyword">typedef</span> <span class="keyword">typename</span> <span class="identifier">member_type_ANamedType</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">EnclosingType</span><span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">type</span> <span class="identifier">AType</span><span class="special">;</span>
</pre>
<p>
      If type 'ANamedType' is a nested type of 'EnclosingType' then AType is the
      same type as 'ANamedType', otherwise AType is a marker type internal to the
      TTI library.
    </p>
<p>
      Now that we have explained the syntax of BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE we can now answer
      the question of why this functionality to create a 'type' exists when looking
      for a nested type of an enclosing type.
    </p>
<h4>
<a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.h0"></a>
      <span class="phrase"><a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.the_problem"></a></span><a class="link" href="tti_nested_type.html#the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.the_problem">The
      problem</a>
    </h4>
<p>
      The metafunctions generated by the TTI macros all work with various types,
      whether in specifying an enclosing type or in specifying the type of some inner
      element, which may also involve types in the signature of that element, such
      as a parameter or return type of a function. The C++ notation for a nested
      type, given an enclosing type 'T' and an inner type 'InnerType', is 'T::InnerType'.
      If either the enclosing type 'T' does not exist, or the inner type 'InnerType'
      does not exist within 'T', the expression 'T::InnerType' will give a compiler
      error if we attempt to use it in our template instantiation of one of TTI's
      macro metafunctions.
    </p>
<p>
      This is a problem if we want to be able to introspect for the existence of
      inner elements to an enclosing type without producing compiler errors. Of course
      if we absolutely know what types we have and that a nested type exists, and
      these declarations are within our scope, we can always use an expression like
      'T::InnerType' without compiler error. But this is often not the case when
      doing template programming since the type being passed to us at compile-time
      in a class or function template is chosen at instantiation time and is created
      by the user of a template.
    </p>
<p>
      One solution to this is afforded by the library itself. Given an enclosing
      type 'T' which we know must exist, either because it is a top-level type we
      know about or it is passed to us in some template as a 'class T' or 'typename
      T', and given an inner type named 'InnerType' whose existence we would like
      ascertain, we can use a <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_HAS_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">InnerType</span><span class="special">)</span></code> macro and it's related <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">has_type_InnerType</span></code>
      metafunction to determine if the nested type 'InnerType' exists. This solution
      is perfectly valid, and in conjunction with Boost MPL's selection metafunctions,
      we can do compile-time selection to generate the correct template code.
    </p>
<p>
      However this does not scale that well syntactically if we need to drill down
      further from a top-level enclosing type to a deeply nested type, or even to
      look for some deeply nested type's inner elements. We are going to be generating
      a great deal of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">mpl</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">if_</span></code>
      and/or <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">mpl</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">eval_if</span></code>
      type selection statements to get to some final condition where we know we can
      generate the compile-time code which we want.
    </p>
<h4>
<a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.h1"></a>
      <span class="phrase"><a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.the_solution"></a></span><a class="link" href="tti_nested_type.html#the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.the_solution">The
      solution</a>
    </h4>
<p>
      The solution given by BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE is that we can create a type as
      the return from our metafunction, which is the same type as a nested type if
      it exists or some other marker type if it does not, and then work with that
      returned type without producing a compiler error. If we had to use the 'T::InnerType'
      syntax to specify our type, where 'T' represents out enclosing type and 'InnerType'
      our nested type, and there was no nested type 'InnerType' within the enclosing
      type 'T, the compiler would give us an error immediately.
    </p>
<p>
      By using BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE we have a type to work with even when such a
      type really does not exist. Naturally if the type does not exist, the type
      which we have to work with, being a marker type, will generally not fulfill
      any other further functionality we want from it. This is good and will normally
      produce the correct results in further uses of the type when doing metafunction
      programming. Occasionally the TTI produced marker type, when our nested type
      does not exist, is not sufficient for further metafunction programming. In
      that rare case the end-user can produce his own marker type to be used if the
      nested type does not exist. In any case, whether the nested type exists, whether
      the TTI default supplied marker type is used, or whether an end-user marker
      type is used, template metaprogramming can continue without a compilation problem.
      Furthermore this scales better than having to constant check for nested type
      existence via BOOST_TTI_HAS_TYPE in complicated template metaprogramming code.
    </p>
<h4>
<a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.h2"></a>
      <span class="phrase"><a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.checking_if_the_member_type_exists"></a></span><a class="link" href="tti_nested_type.html#the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.checking_if_the_member_type_exists">Checking
      if the member type exists</a>
    </h4>
<p>
      Once we use BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE to generate a nested type if it exists we
      will normally use that type in further metafunction programming. Occasionally,
      given the type we generate, we will want to ask if the type is really our nested
      type or the marker type instead. Essentially we are asking if the type generated
      is the marker type or not. If it is the marker type, then the type generated
      is not the nested type we had hoped for. If it is not the marker type, then
      the type generated is the nested type we had hoped for. This is easy enough
      to do for the template metaprogrammer but TTI makes it easier by providing
      either of two metafunctions to do this calculation. These two metafunctions
      are 'boost::tti::valid_member_type' and 'boost::tti::valid_member_metafunction':
    </p>
<div class="table">
<a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.existtbmacronested"></a><p class="title"><b>Table&#160;1.4.&#160;TTI Nested Type Macro Metafunction Existence</b></p>
<div class="table-contents"><table class="table" summary="TTI Nested Type Macro Metafunction Existence">
<colgroup>
<col>
<col>
<col>
<col>
</colgroup>
<thead><tr>
<th>
              <p>
                Inner Element
              </p>
            </th>
<th>
              <p>
                Macro
              </p>
            </th>
<th>
              <p>
                Template
              </p>
            </th>
<th>
              <p>
                Specific Header File
              </p>
            </th>
</tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
              <p>
                Type
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                None
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/tti/valid_member_type.html" title="Struct template valid_member_type">boost::tti::valid_member_type</a></code>
              </p>
              <p>
                class T = a type
              </p>
              <p>
                class U = (optional) marker type
              </p>
              <p>
                returns = true if the type exists, false if it does not. 'Existence'
                is determined by whether the type does not equal the marker type
                of BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE.
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../header/boost/tti/member_type_hpp.html" title="Header &lt;boost/tti/member_type.hpp&gt;">member_type.hpp</a></code>
              </p>
            </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
              <p>
                Type
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                None
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../boost/tti/valid_member_metafunction.html" title="Struct template valid_member_metafunction">boost::tti::valid_member_metafunction</a></code>
              </p>
              <p>
                class T = a metafunction type
              </p>
              <p>
                returns = true if the return 'type' of the metafunction exists, false
                if it does not.'Existence' is determined by whether the return 'type'
                does not equal the marker type of BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE.
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                <code class="computeroutput"><a class="link" href="../header/boost/tti/member_type_hpp.html" title="Header &lt;boost/tti/member_type.hpp&gt;">member_type.hpp</a></code>
              </p>
            </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></div>
</div>
<br class="table-break"><p>
      In our first metafunction, 'boost::tti::valid_member_type', the first parameter
      is the return 'type' from invoking the metafunction generated by BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE.
      If when the metafunction was invoked a user-defined marker type had been specified,
      then the second optional parameter is that marker type, else it is not necessary
      to specify the optional second template parameter. Since the marker type is
      saved as the nested type boost::tti::marker_type once we invoke the metafunction
      generated by BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE we can always use that as our second template
      parameter to 'boost::tti::valid_member_type' if we like.
    </p>
<p>
      The second metafunction, boost::tti::valid_member_metafunction, makes the process
      of passing our nested 'type' and our marker type a bit easier. Here the single
      template parameter is the invoked metafunction generated by BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE
      itself. It then picks out from the invoked metafunction both the return 'type'
      and the nested boost::tti::marker_type to do the correct calculation.
    </p>
<p>
      A simple example of this functionality would be:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="preprocessor">#include</span> <span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">tti</span><span class="special">/</span><span class="identifier">member_type</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">hpp</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>

<span class="keyword">struct</span> <span class="identifier">UDMarkerType</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="special">};</span>

<span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">ANamedType</span><span class="special">)</span>

<span class="keyword">typedef</span> <span class="identifier">member_type_ANamedType</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">EnclosingType</span><span class="special">&gt;</span> <span class="identifier">IMType</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="keyword">typedef</span> <span class="identifier">member_type_ANamedType</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">EnclosingType</span><span class="special">,</span><span class="identifier">UDMarkerType</span><span class="special">&gt;</span> <span class="identifier">IMTypeWithMarkerType</span><span class="special">;</span>
</pre>
<p>
      then
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">tti</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">valid_member_type</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">IMType</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">type</span><span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">value</span>
<span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">tti</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">valid_member_type</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">IMTypeWithMarkerType</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">type</span><span class="special">,</span><span class="identifier">IMTypeWithMarkerType</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">boost_tti_marker_type</span><span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">value</span>
</pre>
<p>
      or
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">tti</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">valid_member_metafunction</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">IMType</span><span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">value</span>
<span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">tti</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">valid_member_metafunction</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">IMTypeWithMarkerType</span><span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">value</span>
</pre>
<p>
      gives us our compile-time result.
    </p>
<h4>
<a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.h3"></a>
      <span class="phrase"><a name="the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.an_extended_nested_type_example"></a></span><a class="link" href="tti_nested_type.html#the_type_traits_introspection_library.tti_nested_type.an_extended_nested_type_example">An
      extended nested type example</a>
    </h4>
<p>
      As an extended example, given a type T, let us create a metafunction where
      there is a nested type FindType whose enclosing type is eventually T, as represented
      by the following structure:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">struct</span> <span class="identifier">T</span>
  <span class="special">{</span>
  <span class="keyword">struct</span> <span class="identifier">AType</span>
    <span class="special">{</span>
    <span class="keyword">struct</span> <span class="identifier">BType</span>
      <span class="special">{</span>
      <span class="keyword">struct</span> <span class="identifier">CType</span>
        <span class="special">{</span>
        <span class="keyword">struct</span> <span class="identifier">FindType</span>
          <span class="special">{</span>
          <span class="special">};</span>
        <span class="special">}</span>
      <span class="special">};</span>
    <span class="special">};</span>
  <span class="special">};</span>
</pre>
<p>
      In our TTI code we first create a series of member type macros for each of
      our nested types:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">AType</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">BType</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">CType</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">FindType</span><span class="special">)</span>
</pre>
<p>
      Next we can create a typedef to reflect a nested type called FindType which
      has the relationship as specified above by instantiating our macro metafunctions.
      We have to do this in the reverse order of our hypothetical 'struct T' above
      since the metafunction <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span></code>
      takes its enclosing type as its template parameter.
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">typedef</span> <span class="keyword">typename</span>
<span class="identifier">member_type_FindType</span>
  <span class="special">&lt;</span>
  <span class="keyword">typename</span> <span class="identifier">member_type_CType</span>
    <span class="special">&lt;</span>
    <span class="keyword">typename</span> <span class="identifier">member_type_BType</span>
      <span class="special">&lt;</span>
      <span class="keyword">typename</span> <span class="identifier">member_type_AType</span>
        <span class="special">&lt;</span>
        <span class="identifier">T</span>
        <span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">type</span>
      <span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">type</span>
    <span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">type</span>
  <span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">type</span> <span class="identifier">MyFindType</span><span class="special">;</span>
</pre>
<p>
      We can use the above typedef to pass the type as FindType to one of our macro
      metafunctions. FindType may not actually exist but we will not generate a compiler
      error when we use it. It will only generate, if it does not exist, an eventual
      failure by having whatever metafunction uses such a type return a false value
      at compile-time.
    </p>
<p>
      As one example, let's ask whether FindType has a static member data called
      MyData of type 'int'. We add:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_HAS_STATIC_MEMBER_DATA</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">MyData</span><span class="special">)</span>
</pre>
<p>
      Next we create our metafunction:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">has_static_member_data_MyData</span>
  <span class="special">&lt;</span>
  <span class="identifier">MyFindType</span><span class="special">,</span>
  <span class="keyword">int</span>
  <span class="special">&gt;</span>
</pre>
<p>
      and use this in our metaprogramming code. Our metafunction now tells us whether
      the nested type FindType has a static member data called MyData of type 'int',
      even if FindType does not actually exist as we have specified it as a type.
      If we had tried to do this using normal C++ nested type notation our metafunction
      code above would be:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">has_static_member_data_MyData</span>
  <span class="special">&lt;</span>
  <span class="keyword">typename</span> <span class="identifier">T</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">AType</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">BType</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">CType</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">FindType</span><span class="special">,</span>
  <span class="keyword">int</span>
  <span class="special">&gt;</span>
</pre>
<p>
      But this fails with a compiler error if there is no such nested type, and that
      is exactly what we do not want in our compile-time metaprogramming code.
    </p>
<p>
      In the above metafunction we are asking whether or not FindType has a static
      member data element called 'MyData', and the result will be 'false' if either
      FindType does not exist or if it does exist but does not have a static member
      data of type 'int' called 'MyData'. In neither situation will we produce a
      compiler error.
    </p>
<p>
      We may also be interested in ascertaining whether the deeply nested type 'FindType'
      actually exists. Our metafunction, using BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE and repeating
      our macros from above, could be:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">FindType</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">AType</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">BType</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_MEMBER_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">CType</span><span class="special">)</span>

<span class="identifier">BOOST_TTI_HAS_TYPE</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">FindType</span><span class="special">)</span>

<span class="identifier">has_type_FindType</span>
  <span class="special">&lt;</span>
  <span class="keyword">typename</span>
  <span class="identifier">member_type_CType</span>
    <span class="special">&lt;</span>
    <span class="keyword">typename</span>
    <span class="identifier">member_type_BType</span>
      <span class="special">&lt;</span>
      <span class="keyword">typename</span>
      <span class="identifier">member_type_AType</span>
        <span class="special">&lt;</span>
        <span class="identifier">T</span>
        <span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">type</span>
      <span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">type</span>
    <span class="special">&gt;::</span><span class="identifier">type</span>
  <span class="special">&gt;</span>
</pre>
<p>
      But this duplicates much of our code when we generated the 'MyFindType' typedef.
      Instead we use the functionality already provided by 'boost::tti::valid_member_type'.
      Using this functionality with our 'MyFindType' type above we create the nullary
      metafunction:
    </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">boost</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">tti</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">valid_member_type</span>
  <span class="special">&lt;</span>
  <span class="identifier">MyFindType</span>
  <span class="special">&gt;</span>
</pre>
<p>
      directly instead of replicating the same functionality with our 'has_type_FindType'
      metafunction.
    </p>
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        Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
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