template argument deduction/substitution failed, when using std::function and std::bind

Question

I have a compile error when using std::function in a templated member function, the following code is a simple example:

#include <functional>
#include <memory>
using std::function;
using std::bind;
using std::shared_ptr;

class Test {
public:
     template <typename T>
     void setCallback(function<void (T, int)> cb); 
};

template <typename T>
void Test::setCallback(function<void (T, int)> cb)
{
    // do nothing
}

class TestA {
public:
    void testa(int a, int b) {   }
};


int main()
{
    TestA testA;
    Test test;
    test.setCallback(bind(&TestA::testa, &testA, std::placeholders::_1, std::placeholders::_2));
    return 0;
}

And come with the following compile error:

testtemplate.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:

testtemplate.cpp:29:92: error: no matching function for call to ‘Test::setCallback(std::_Bind_helper)(int, int), TestA, const std::_Placeholder<1>&, const std::_Placeholder<2>&>::type)’

testtemplate.cpp:29:92: note: candidate is: testtemplate.cpp:10:7: note: template void Test::setCallback(std::function)

testtemplate.cpp:10:7: note: template argument deduction/substitution failed:

testtemplate.cpp:29:92: note: ‘std::_Bind(TestA*, std::_Placeholder<1>, std::_Placeholder<2>)>’ is not derived from ‘std::function’

I'm using C++11 and g++ 4.7

Answer 1

To figure out the problem let separate statements:

auto f = bind(&TestA::testa, &testA, _1, _2); // OK
test.setCallback(f);                          // <<--- Error is here

setCallback needs to know type of T and it can't deduce it from f, so give it a type

test.setCallback<TYPE>(f); // TYPE: int, float, a class, ...

Answer 2

You can make type deduction work with some variant of:

template<typename CALLBACK>
void setCallback(CALLBACK cb) {
  typedef CALLBACK::first_argument_type T;
  static_assert(is_same_type<CALLBACK,function<void(T,int)>>::value);
  ...
}

This way CALLBACK can be determined by looking at the argument. It might get into trouble if bind doesn't actually return a std::function but rather something that can be cast as one. I'm not sure.