C++ for_each calling a vector of callback functions and passing each one an argument

Question

I'm fairly green when it comes to c++0x, lambda, and such so I hope you guys can help me out with this little problem.

I want to store a bunch of callbacks in a vector and then use for_each to call them when the time is right. I want the callback functions to be able to accept arguments. Here's my code right now. The trouble is in void B::do_another_callbacks(std::string &)

#include <boost/bind.hpp>
#include <boost/function.hpp>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>



class A {
public:
    void print(std::string &s) {
        std::cout << s.c_str() << std::endl;
    }
};

typedef boost::function<void(std::string&)> another_callback;
typedef boost::function<void()> callback;

typedef std::vector<callback> callback_vector;
typedef std::vector<another_callback> another_callback_vector;

class B {
public:
    void add_callback(callback cb) {
        m_cb.push_back(cb);
    }

    void add_another_callback(another_callback acb) {
        m_acb.push_back(acb);
    }

    void do_callbacks() {
        for_each(m_cb.begin(), m_cb.end(), this);
    }

    void do_another_callbacks(std::string &s) {
        std::tr1::function<void(another_callback , std::string &)> my_func = [] (another_callback acb, std::string &s) { acb(s); }
        for_each(m_acb.begin(), m_acb.end(), my_func(_1, s));
    }

    void operator() (callback cb) { cb(); }

private:
    callback_vector m_cb;
    another_callback_vector m_acb;
};

void main() {
    A a;
    B b;
    std::string s("message");
    std::string q("question");
    b.add_callback(boost::bind(&A::print, &a, s));
    b.add_callback(boost::bind(&A::print, &a, q));
    b.add_another_callback(boost::bind(&A::print, &a, _1));
    b.do_callbacks();
    b.do_another_callbacks(s);
    b.do_another_callbacks(q);
}

I thought I might be able to do something like this...

void do_another_callbacks(std::string &s) {

    for_each(m_acb.begin(), m_acb.end(), [&s](another_callback acb) {
        acb(s);
    });
}

But that doesn't compile in MSVC2010

Answer 1

The problem with the long example is that my_func(_1,s) is evaluated right there and then. You need to use std::bind (or boost::bind) to invoke the function on each element in the range.

The alternative code that you posted does indeed work, but the whole example fails to compile because of the code in do_callbacks:

void do_callbacks() {
    for_each(m_cb.begin(), m_cb.end(), this);
}

this is of type B*, which is not callable. If you define a result_type typedef to match the return type of operator() then you could use std::ref(*this) instead. The following code compiles and runs under MSVC10:

#include <functional>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>



class A {
public:
    void print(std::string &s) {
        std::cout << s.c_str() << std::endl;
    }
};

typedef std::function<void(std::string&)> another_callback;
typedef std::function<void()> callback;

typedef std::vector<callback> callback_vector;
typedef std::vector<another_callback> another_callback_vector;

class B {
public:
    void add_callback(callback cb) {
        m_cb.push_back(cb);
    }

    void add_another_callback(another_callback acb) {
        m_acb.push_back(acb);
    }

    void do_callbacks() {
        std::for_each(m_cb.begin(), m_cb.end(), std::ref(*this));
    }

    void do_another_callbacks(std::string &s) {

        std::for_each(m_acb.begin(), m_acb.end(), [&s](another_callback acb) {
                acb(s);
            });
    }

    typedef void result_type;
    void operator() (callback cb) { cb(); }

private:
    callback_vector m_cb;
    another_callback_vector m_acb;
};

void main() {
    A a;
    B b;
    std::string s("message");
    std::string q("question");
    b.add_callback(std::bind(&A::print, &a, s));
    b.add_callback(std::bind(&A::print, &a, q));
    b.add_another_callback(std::bind(&A::print, &a, std::placeholders::_1));
    b.do_callbacks();
    b.do_another_callbacks(s);
    b.do_another_callbacks(q);
}