"unpacking" a tuple to call a matching function pointer

Question

You need to build a parameter pack of numbers and unpack them

template<int ...>
struct seq { };

template<int N, int ...S>
struct gens : gens<N-1, N-1, S...> { };

template<int ...S>
struct gens<0, S...> {
  typedef seq<S...> type;
};


// ...
  void delayed_dispatch() {
     callFunc(typename gens<sizeof...(Args)>::type());
  }

  template<int ...S>
  void callFunc(seq<S...>) {
     func(std::get<S>(params) ...);
  }
// ...

The C++17 solution is simply to use std::apply:

auto f = [](int a, double b, std::string c) { std::cout<<a<<" "<<b<<" "<<c<< std::endl; };
auto params = std::make_tuple(1,2.0,"Hello");
std::apply(f, params);

Just felt that should be stated once in an answer in this thread (after it already appeared in one of the comments).

---

The basic C++14 solution is still missing in this thread. EDIT: No, it's actually there in the answer of Walter.

This function is given:

void f(int a, double b, void* c)
{
      std::cout << a << ":" << b << ":" << c << std::endl;
}

Call it with the following snippet:

template<typename Function, typename Tuple, size_t ... I>
auto call(Function f, Tuple t, std::index_sequence<I ...>)
{
     return f(std::get<I>(t) ...);
}

template<typename Function, typename Tuple>
auto call(Function f, Tuple t)
{
    static constexpr auto size = std::tuple_size<Tuple>::value;
    return call(f, t, std::make_index_sequence<size>{});
}

Example:

int main()
{
    std::tuple<int, double, int*> t;
    //or std::array<int, 3> t;
    //or std::pair<int, double> t;
    call(f, t);    
}

DEMO

This is a complete compilable version of Johannes' solution to awoodland's question, in the hope it may be useful to somebody. This was tested with a snapshot of g++ 4.7 on Debian squeeze.

###################
johannes.cc
###################
#include <tuple>
#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::endl;

template<int ...> struct seq {};

template<int N, int ...S> struct gens : gens<N-1, N-1, S...> {};

template<int ...S> struct gens<0, S...>{ typedef seq<S...> type; };

double foo(int x, float y, double z)
{
  return x + y + z;
}

template <typename ...Args>
struct save_it_for_later
{
  std::tuple<Args...> params;
  double (*func)(Args...);

  double delayed_dispatch()
  {
    return callFunc(typename gens<sizeof...(Args)>::type());
  }

  template<int ...S>
  double callFunc(seq<S...>)
  {
    return func(std::get<S>(params) ...);
  }
};

#pragma GCC diagnostic push
#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wunused-parameter"
#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wunused-variable"
#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wunused-but-set-variable"
int main(void)
{
  gens<10> g;
  gens<10>::type s;
  std::tuple<int, float, double> t = std::make_tuple(1, 1.2, 5);
  save_it_for_later<int,float, double> saved = {t, foo};
  cout << saved.delayed_dispatch() << endl;
}
#pragma GCC diagnostic pop

One can use the following SConstruct file

#####################
SConstruct
#####################
#!/usr/bin/python

env = Environment(CXX="g++-4.7", CXXFLAGS="-Wall -Werror -g -O3 -std=c++11")
env.Program(target="johannes", source=["johannes.cc"])

On my machine, this gives

g++-4.7 -o johannes.o -c -Wall -Werror -g -O3 -std=c++11 johannes.cc
g++-4.7 -o johannes johannes.o

Here is a C++14 solution.

template <typename ...Args>
struct save_it_for_later
{
  std::tuple<Args...> params;
  void (*func)(Args...);

  template<std::size_t ...I>
  void call_func(std::index_sequence<I...>)
  { func(std::get<I>(params)...); }
  void delayed_dispatch()
  { call_func(std::index_sequence_for<Args...>{}); }
};

This still needs one helper function (call_func). Since this is a common idiom, perhaps the standard should support it directly as std::call with possible implementation

// helper class
template<typename R, template<typename...> class Params, typename... Args, std::size_t... I>
R call_helper(std::function<R(Args...)> const&func, Params<Args...> const&params, std::index_sequence<I...>)
{ return func(std::get<I>(params)...); }

// "return func(params...)"
template<typename R, template<typename...> class Params, typename... Args>
R call(std::function<R(Args...)> const&func, Params<Args...> const&params)
{ return call_helper(func,params,std::index_sequence_for<Args...>{}); }

Then our delayed dispatch becomes

template <typename ...Args>
struct save_it_for_later
{
  std::tuple<Args...> params;
  std::function<void(Args...)> func;
  void delayed_dispatch()
  { std::call(func,params); }
};

This is a bit complicated to achieve (even though it is possible). I advise you to use a library where this is already implemented, namely Boost.Fusion (the invoke function). As a bonus, Boost Fusion works with C++03 compilers as well.

c++14 solution. First, some utility boilerplate:

template<std::size_t...Is>
auto index_over(std::index_sequence<Is...>){
  return [](auto&&f)->decltype(auto){
    return decltype(f)(f)( std::integral_constant<std::size_t, Is>{}... );
  };
}
template<std::size_t N>
auto index_upto(std::integral_constant<std::size_t, N> ={}){
  return index_over( std::make_index_sequence<N>{} );
}

These let you call a lambda with a series of compile-time integers.

void delayed_dispatch() {
  auto indexer = index_upto<sizeof...(Args)>();
  indexer([&](auto...Is){
    func(std::get<Is>(params)...);
  });
}

and we are done.

index_upto and index_over let you work with parameter packs without having to generate a new external overloads.

Of course, in c++17 you just

void delayed_dispatch() {
  std::apply( func, params );
}

Now, if we like that, in c++14 we can write:

namespace notstd {
  template<class T>
  constexpr auto tuple_size_v = std::tuple_size<T>::value;
  template<class F, class Tuple>
  decltype(auto) apply( F&& f, Tuple&& tup ) {
    auto indexer = index_upto<
      tuple_size_v<std::remove_reference_t<Tuple>>
    >();
    return indexer(
      [&](auto...Is)->decltype(auto) {
        return std::forward<F>(f)(
          std::get<Is>(std::forward<Tuple>(tup))...
        );
      }
    );
  }
}

relatively easily and get the cleaner c++17 syntax ready to ship.

void delayed_dispatch() {
  notstd::apply( func, params );
}

just replace notstd with std when your compiler upgrades and bob is your uncle.

Thinking about the problem some more based on the answer given I've found another way of solving the same problem:

template <int N, int M, typename D>
struct call_or_recurse;

template <typename ...Types>
struct dispatcher {
  template <typename F, typename ...Args>
  static void impl(F f, const std::tuple<Types...>& params, Args... args) {
     call_or_recurse<sizeof...(Args), sizeof...(Types), dispatcher<Types...> >::call(f, params, args...);
  }
};

template <int N, int M, typename D>
struct call_or_recurse {
  // recurse again
  template <typename F, typename T, typename ...Args>
  static void call(F f, const T& t, Args... args) {
     D::template impl(f, t, std::get<M-(N+1)>(t), args...);
  }
};

template <int N, typename D>
struct call_or_recurse<N,N,D> {
  // do the call
  template <typename F, typename T, typename ...Args>
  static void call(F f, const T&, Args... args) {
     f(args...);
  }
};

Which requires changing the implementation of delayed_dispatch() to:

  void delayed_dispatch() {
     dispatcher<Args...>::impl(func, params);
  }

This works by recursively converting the std::tuple into a parameter pack in its own right. call_or_recurse is needed as a specialization to terminate the recursion with the real call, which just unpacks the completed parameter pack.

I'm not sure this is in anyway a "better" solution, but it's another way of thinking about and solving it.

---

As another alternative solution you can use enable_if, to form something arguably simpler than my previous solution:

#include <iostream>
#include <functional>
#include <tuple>

void f(int a, double b, void* c) {
  std::cout << a << ":" << b << ":" << c << std::endl;
}

template <typename ...Args>
struct save_it_for_later {
  std::tuple<Args...> params;
  void (*func)(Args...);

  template <typename ...Actual>
  typename std::enable_if<sizeof...(Actual) != sizeof...(Args)>::type
  delayed_dispatch(Actual&& ...a) {
    delayed_dispatch(std::forward<Actual>(a)..., std::get<sizeof...(Actual)>(params));
  }

  void delayed_dispatch(Args ...args) {
    func(args...);
  }
};

int main() {
  int a=666;
  double b = -1.234;
  void *c = NULL;

  save_it_for_later<int,double,void*> saved = {
                                 std::tuple<int,double,void*>(a,b,c), f};
  saved.delayed_dispatch();
}

The first overload just takes one more argument from the tuple and puts it into a parameter pack. The second overload takes a matching parameter pack and then makes the real call, with the first overload being disabled in the one and only case where the second would be viable.