Testing for the presence of the left shift operator

Question

I'm trying to find a working type trait to detect if a given type has a left shift operator overload for a std::ostream (e.g. interoperable with std::cout or boost::lexical_cast). I've had success with boost::has_left_shift except for the cases where the type is an STL container of POD or std::string types. I suspect this has to do with the specializations of either the STL types or the operator<< functions. What is the correct method for generically identifying types with a valid left shift operator for std::ostream? If that is not feasible, is there a separate method for detecting an overload of the left shift operator on STL containers of POD or std::string types?

The code below shows what I'm currently working with, and demonstrates how boost::has_left_shift fails to detect the overloaded operator<< function even though it is called on the next line. The program compiles and works in GCC 4.5.1 or higher and clang 3.1.

To circumvent the obvious responses, I have tried replacing the templated operator<< function with specific versions for the various types used to no avail. I've also tried various combinations of const-ness and l-value/r-value specifiers for the two types (various tweaks lead me to a compiler message pointing at an operator<< overload with a r-value ostream). I've also tried implementing my own trait which at best gives me the same results as boost::has_left_shift.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided. I would also greatly appreciate it if a thorough explanation of why this behavior is occurring and how the solution works can be included. I'm stretching the limits of my template knowledge and would love to learn why this does not work as I would think it does.

#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <boost/lexical_cast.hpp>
#include <boost/type_traits/has_left_shift.hpp>

using namespace std;

struct Point {
    int x;
    int y;
    Point(int x, int y) : x(x), y(y) {}
    string getStr() const { return "("+boost::lexical_cast<string>(x)+","+boost::lexical_cast<string>(y)+")"; }
};

ostream& operator<<(ostream& stream, const Point& p)
{
    stream << p.getStr();
    return stream;
}

template <typename T>
ostream& operator<<(ostream& stream, const std::vector<T>& v)
{
    stream << "[";
    for(auto it = v.begin(); it != v.end(); ++it)
    {
        if(it != v.begin())
            stream << ", ";
        stream << *it;
    }
    stream << "]";
    return stream;
}

template <typename T>
void print(const string& name, T& t)
{
    cout << name << " has left shift = " << boost::has_left_shift<ostream , T>::value << endl;
    cout << "t = " << t << endl << endl;
}

int main()
{
    cout << boolalpha;

    int i = 1;
    print("int", i);

    string s = "asdf";
    print("std::string", s);

    Point p(2,3);
    print("Point", p);

    vector<int> vi({1, 2, 3});
    print("std::vector<int>", vi);

    vector<string> vs({"x", "y", "z"});
    print("std::vector<std::string>", vs);

    vector<Point> vp({Point(1,2), Point(3,4), Point(5,6)});
    print("std::vector<Point>", vp);
}

Answer 1

The reason why it does not work is that C++ has sometimes surprising (but well motivated) rules for resolving a function call. In particular, name lookup is first performed in namespace where the call happens and in the namespace of the arguments (for UDTs): if a function with a matching name (or if a matching built-in operator) is found, it is selected (or if more than one are found, overload resolution is performed).

Only if no function with the matching name is found in the namespace of the arguments, the parent namespaces are checked. If a function with a matching name is found is but not viable for resolving the call, or if the call is ambiguous, the compiler will not keep looking up in parent namespaces with the hope of finding a better or unambiguous match: rather, it will conclude that there is no way to resolve the call.

This mechanism is nicely explained in this presentation by Stephan T. Lavavej and in this old article by Herb Sutter.

In your case, the function which checks for the existence of this operator is in the boost namespace. Your arguments are either from the std namespace (ostream, string, vector) or are PODs (int). In the std namespace, a non-viable overload of operator << exist, so the compiler does not bother looking up in the parent (global) namespace, where your overload is defined. It will simply conclude that the (simulated) call done in the boost namespace to check whether operator << is defined can't be resolved.

Now boost::has_left_shift is likely to have some SFINAE machinery for turning what would otherwise be a compilation error into a failed substitution, and will assign false to the value static variable.

UPDATE:

The original part of the answer explained why this does not work. Let's now see if there is a way to work around it. Since ADL is used and the std namespace contains a non-viable overload of operator <<, de facto blocking the attempt to resolve the call, one could be tempted to move the viable overloads of operator << from the global namespace into the std namespace.

Alas, extending the std namespace (and this is what we would do if we were to add new overloads of operator <<) is forbidden by the C++ Standard. What is allowed instead is to specialize a template function defined in the std namespace (unless stated otherwise); however, this doesn't help us here, because there is no template whose parameters can be specialized by vector<int>. Moreover, function templates cannot be partially specialized, which would make things much more unwieldy.

There is one last possibility though: add the overload to the namespace where the call resolution occurs. This is somewhere inside the machinery of Boost.TypeTraits. In particular, what we are interested in is the name of the namespace in which the call is made.

In the current version of the library, that happens to be boost::detail::has_left_shift_impl, but I am not sure how portable this is across different Boost versions.

However, if you really need a workaround, you can declare your operators in that namespace:

namespace boost 
{ 
    namespace detail 
    { 
        namespace has_left_shift_impl
        {
            ostream& operator<<(ostream& stream, const Point& p)
            {
                stream << p.getStr();
                return stream;
            }

            template <typename T>
            std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& stream, const std::vector<T>& v)
            {
                stream << "[";
                for(auto it = v.begin(); it != v.end(); ++it)
                {
                    if(it != v.begin())
                        stream << ", ";
                    stream << *it;
                }
                stream << "]";
                return stream;
            }
        } 
    } 
}

And things will start working.

There is one caveat though: while this compiles and runs fine with GCC 4.7.2 with the expected output. However, Clang 3.2 seems to require the overloads to be defined in the boost::details::has_left_shift_impl before the has_left_shift.hpp header is included. I believe this is a bug.