C++ callback using class member

Question

I know this has been asked so many times, and because of that it's difficult to dig through the cruft and find a simple example of what works.

I've got this, it's simple and it works for MyClass...

#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::endl;

class MyClass
{
    public:
        MyClass();
        static void Callback(MyClass* instance, int x);
    private:
        int private_x;
};

class EventHandler
{
    public:
        void addHandler(MyClass* owner)
        {
            cout << "Handler added..." << endl;
            //Let's pretend an event just occured
            owner->Callback(owner,1);
        }
};

EventHandler* handler;

MyClass::MyClass()
{
    private_x = 5;
    handler->addHandler(this);
}

void MyClass::Callback(MyClass* instance, int x)
{
    cout << x + instance->private_x << endl;
}

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    handler = new EventHandler();
    MyClass* myClass = new MyClass();
}

class YourClass
{
    public:
        YourClass();
        static void Callback(YourClass* instance, int x);
};

How can that be rewritten so EventHandler::addHandler() will work with both MyClass and YourClass. I'm sorry but it's just the way my brain works, I need to see a simple example of what works before I can comprehend why/how it works. If you've got a favorite way to make this work now's the time to show it off, please markup that code and post it back.

[edit]

It was answered but the answer was deleted before I could give the checkmark. The answer in my case was a templated function. Changed addHandler to this...

class EventHandler
{
    public:
        template<typename T>
        void addHandler(T* owner)
        {
            cout << "Handler added..." << endl;
            //Let's pretend an event just occured
            owner->Callback(owner,1);
        }
};

Answer 1

Instead of having static methods and passing around a pointer to the class instance, you could use functionality in the new C++11 standard: std::function and std::bind:

#include <functional>
class EventHandler
{
    public:
        void addHandler(std::function<void(int)> callback)
        {
            cout << "Handler added..." << endl;
            // Let's pretend an event just occured
            callback(1);
        }
};

The addHandler method now accepts a std::function argument, and this "function object" have no return value and takes an integer as argument.

To bind it to a specific function, you use std::bind:

class MyClass
{
    public:
        MyClass();

        // Note: No longer marked `static`, and only takes the actual argument
        void Callback(int x);
    private:
        int private_x;
};

MyClass::MyClass()
{
    using namespace std::placeholders; // for `_1`

    private_x = 5;
    handler->addHandler(std::bind(&MyClass::Callback, this, _1));
}

void MyClass::Callback(int x)
{
    // No longer needs an explicit `instance` argument,
    // as `this` is set up properly
    cout << x + private_x << endl;
}

You need to use std::bind when adding the handler, as you explicitly needs to specify the otherwise implicit this pointer as an argument. If you have a free-standing function, you don't have to use std::bind:

void freeStandingCallback(int x)
{
    // ...
}

int main()
{
    // ...
    handler->addHandler(freeStandingCallback);
}

Having the event handler use std::function objects, also makes it possible to use the new C++11 lambda functions:

handler->addHandler([](int x) { std::cout << "x is " << x << '\n'; });

Answer 2

Here's a concise version that works with class method callbacks and with regular function callbacks. In this example, to show how parameters are handled, the callback function takes two parameters: bool and int.

class Caller {
  template<class T> void addCallback(T* const object, void(T::* const mf)(bool,int))
  {
    using namespace std::placeholders; 
    callbacks_.emplace_back(std::bind(mf, object, _1, _2));
  }
  void addCallback(void(* const fun)(bool,int)) 
  {
    callbacks_.emplace_back(fun);
  }
  void callCallbacks(bool firstval, int secondval) 
  {
    for (const auto& cb : callbacks_)
      cb(firstval, secondval);
  }
private:
  std::vector<std::function<void(bool,int)>> callbacks_;
}

class Callee {
  void MyFunction(bool,int);
}

//then, somewhere in Callee, to add the callback, given a pointer to Caller `ptr`

ptr->addCallback(this, &Callee::MyFunction);

//or to add a call back to a regular function
ptr->addCallback(&MyRegularFunction);

This restricts the C++11-specific code to the addCallback method and private data in class Caller. To me, at least, this minimizes the chance of making mistakes when implementing it.

Note that with C++20's bind_front you can simplify add_callback for class member functions to:

      template<class T> void addCallback(T* const object, void(T::* const mf)(bool,int))
      {
        callbacks_.emplace_back(std::bind_front(mf, object));
      }

Answer 3

What you want to do is to make an interface which handles this code and all your classes implement the interface.

class IEventListener{
public:
   void OnEvent(int x) = 0;  // renamed Callback to OnEvent removed the instance, you can add it back if you want.
};


class MyClass :public IEventListener
{
    ...
    void OnEvent(int x); //typically such a function is NOT static. This wont work if it is static.
};

class YourClass :public IEventListener
{

Note that for this to work the "Callback" function is non static which i believe is an improvement. If you want it to be static, you need to do it as JaredC suggests with templates.