A modern C++ metaprogramming library. It provides high level algorithms to manipulate heterogeneous sequences, allows writing type-level computations with a natural syntax, provides tools to introspect user-defined types and much more
Your standard library for metaprogramming
Overview
#include <boost/hana.hpp>
#include <cassert>
#include <string>
namespace hana = boost::hana;
using namespace hana::literals;
struct Fish { std::string name; };
struct Cat { std::string name; };
struct Dog { std::string name; };
int main() {
// Sequences capable of holding heterogeneous objects, and algorithms
// to manipulate them.
auto animals = hana::make_tuple(Fish{"Nemo"}, Cat{"Garfield"}, Dog{"Snoopy"});
auto names = hana::transform(animals, [](auto a) {
return a.name;
});
assert(hana::reverse(names) == hana::make_tuple("Snoopy", "Garfield", "Nemo"));
// No compile-time information is lost: even if `animals` can't be a
// constant expression because it contains strings, its length is constexpr.
static_assert(hana::length(animals) == 3u, "");
// Computations on types can be performed with the same syntax as that of
// normal C++. Believe it or not, everything is done at compile-time.
auto animal_types = hana::make_tuple(hana::type_c<Fish*>, hana::type_c<Cat&>, hana::type_c<Dog*>);
auto animal_ptrs = hana::filter(animal_types, [](auto a) {
return hana::traits::is_pointer(a);
});
static_assert(animal_ptrs == hana::make_tuple(hana::type_c<Fish*>, hana::type_c<Dog*>), "");
// And many other goodies to make your life easier, including:
// 1. Access to elements in a tuple with a sane syntax.
static_assert(animal_ptrs[0_c] == hana::type_c<Fish*>, "");
static_assert(animal_ptrs[1_c] == hana::type_c<Dog*>, "");
// 2. Unroll loops at compile-time without hassle.
std::string s;
hana::int_c<10>.times([&]{ s += "x"; });
// equivalent to s += "x"; s += "x"; ... s += "x";
// 3. Easily check whether an expression is valid.
// This is usually achieved with complex SFINAE-based tricks.
auto has_name = hana::is_valid([](auto&& x) -> decltype((void)x.name) { });
static_assert(has_name(animals[0_c]), "");
static_assert(!has_name(1), "");
}
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