CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++templatesvector
bcf
bcf

Reputation: 2134

Operator Overload for Template Class Auto Type Conversion

I have a template class for which I'm overloading operator+, but need it to potentially return a different data type than what the class is instantiated for. For example, the following snippet performs the standard mathematical definition of either vector*vector (inner product), vector*scalar, or scalar*vector. To be specific, let's say I have a Vector<int> and the scalar is of type double -- I want to return a double from the "vector*scalar" operator+ function.

I'm pretty sure I'm missing some template<class T> statements for the friend functions(?), but this snippet isn't meant to compile.

template<class T>
class Vector
{
private:
    std::vector<T> base;

public:
    friend Vector operator*(const Vector& lhs, const Vector& rhs);  // inner product    
    Vector<T> operator*(const T scalar);  // vector*scalar   
    friend Vector operator*(const T scalar, const Vector& rhs);  // scalar*vector
};

template<class T>
Vector<T> operator*(const Vector<T>& lhs, const Vector<T>& rhs)  // inner product
{
    assert( lhs.base.size() == rhs.base.size() );

    Vector result;
    result.base.reserve(lhs.base.size());
    std::transform( lhs.base.begin(), lhs.base.end(), rhs.base.begin(), std::back_inserter(result.base), std::multiplies<T>() );

    return result;
}

template<class T>
Vector<T> Vector<T>::operator*(const T scalar)  // vector*scalar
{
    Vector result;
    result.base.reserve(base.size());

    std::transform( base.begin(), base.end(), std::back_inserter(result.base), std::bind1st(std::multiplies<T>(), scalar) );

    return result;
}

template<class T>
Vector<T> operator*(const T scalar, const Vector<T>& rhs)  // scalar*vector
{
    Vector result;
    result.base.reserve(rhs.base.size());

    std::transform( rhs.base.begin(), rhs.base.end(), std::back_inserter(result.base), std::bind1st(std::multiplies<T>(), scalar) );

    return result;
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 513

Answers (3)

leemes
leemes

Reputation: 45675

I guess what you want is to return a Vector with the value type being the type returned by the per-component operation, which is not necessarily the type of the scalar.

For example:

Vector<int>    * int    -> Vector<int>
Vector<int>    * double -> Vector<double>
Vector<double> * int    -> Vector<double>
Vector<char>   * float  -> Vector<float>

etc.

For this, you should define the two input types separately, let's say T1 and T2 (and one or two of the operands is a Vector of it). You don't want to simply use the scalar type (for vector * scalar, or scalar * vector operation) as the result, otherwise it might be converted (see my 3rd example: The result would then be Vector<int>.

The above can be done using decltype to find the third (result) type.

For simplicity, define the operator as a non-member:

template<typename T1, typename T2, typename T3 = decltype(std::declval<T1>() * std::declval<T2>())>
Vector<T3> operator*(const Vector<T1>& lhs, const T2 & scalar)  // inner product
{
    Vector<T3> result;
    //...
    return result;
}

The interesting part is

T3 = decltype(std::declval<T1>() * std::declval<T2>())

Here, we find the type T3 using the other two types T1 and T2. First, we construct two values with unimportant value (the std::declval function is a helper function returning the type given as a template parameter). Then we multiply those values, but again the result is unimportant; we're only interested in the type. That's what the third part does: decltype gives you the type of the expression (without evaluating it).

The other operators can be implemented analogous.

In order to make those operators friends, you need the syntax

template<...> friend ...

as seen in Danvil's answer.

Upvotes: 1

Danvil
Danvil

Reputation: 22991

The friend declaration should look like this:

template<class S>
class Vector
{
private:
    std::vector<S> base;

public:
    template<class T> friend T operator*(const Vector<T>& lhs, const Vector<T>& rhs);  // inner product    
    template<class T> friend Vector<T> operator*(const T scalar);  // vector*scalar   
    template<class T> friend Vector<T> operator*(const T scalar, const Vector<T>& rhs);  // scalar*vector
};

And the rest of the code like this:

template<class T>
T operator*(const Vector<T>& lhs, const Vector<T>& rhs)  // inner product
{
    assert( lhs.base.size() == rhs.base.size() );

    Vector<T> result;
    result.base.reserve(lhs.base.size());
    std::transform( lhs.base.begin(), lhs.base.end(), rhs.base.begin(), std::back_inserter(result.base), std::multiplies<T>() );

    return result;
}

template<class T>
Vector<T> operator*(const Vector<T>& lhs, const T scalar)  // vector*scalar
{
    return scalar*lhs;
}

template<class T>
Vector<T> operator*(const T scalar, const Vector<T>& rhs)  // scalar*vector
{
    Vector<T> result;
    result.base.reserve(rhs.base.size());

    std::transform( rhs.base.begin(), rhs.base.end(), std::back_inserter(result.base), std::bind1st(std::multiplies<T>(), scalar) );

    return result;
}

Upvotes: 1

sgvd
sgvd

Reputation: 3939

You can add more template parameters as such:

template<class T, class S>
Vector<S> Vector<T>::operator*(const S scalar)

and make sure you use S for the scalar type and T for the vector element type in the correct places in the function body.

Upvotes: 0

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