C++ Metaprogramming Detect Whether Expression is Valid
Example
It is possible to detect whether an operator or function can be called on a type. To test if a class has an overload of std::hash, one can do this:
#include <functional> // for std::hash
#include <type_traits> // for std::false_type and std::true_type
#include <utility> // for std::declval
template<class, class = void>
struct has_hash
: std::false_type
{};
template<class T>
struct has_hash<T, decltype(std::hash<T>()(std::declval<T>()), void())>
: std::true_type
{};
C++17
Since C++17, std::void_t can be used to simplify this type of construct
#include <functional> // for std::hash
#include <type_traits> // for std::false_type, std::true_type, std::void_t
#include <utility> // for std::declval
template<class, class = std::void_t<> >
struct has_hash
: std::false_type
{};
template<class T>
struct has_hash<T, std::void_t< decltype(std::hash<T>()(std::declval<T>())) > >
: std::true_type
{};
where std::void_t is defined as:
template< class... > using void_t = void;
For detecting if an operator, such as operator< is defined, the syntax is almost the same:
template<class, class = void>
struct has_less_than
: std::false_type
{};
template<class T>
struct has_less_than<T, decltype(std::declval<T>() < std::declval<T>(), void())>
: std::true_type
{};
These can be used to use a std::unordered_map<T> if T has an overload for std::hash, but otherwise attempt to use a std::map<T>:
template <class K, class V>
using hash_invariant_map = std::conditional_t<
has_hash<K>::value,
std::unordered_map<K, V>,
std::map<K,V>>;
