PR c++/85952
[official-gcc.git] / gcc / is-a.h
blobe28af43f42ef4061dd9e82a4ed6778bc940a64f2
1 /* Dynamic testing for abstract is-a relationships.
2 Copyright (C) 2012-2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 Contributed by Lawrence Crowl.
5 This file is part of GCC.
7 GCC is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
8 the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
9 Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later
10 version.
12 GCC is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
13 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
14 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
15 for more details.
17 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
18 along with GCC; see the file COPYING3. If not see
19 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. */
22 /* This header generic type query and conversion functions.
25 USING THE GENERIC TYPE FACILITY
28 The user functions are:
30 bool is_a <TYPE> (pointer)
32 Tests whether the pointer actually points to a more derived TYPE.
34 Suppose you have a symtab_node *ptr, AKA symtab_node *ptr. You can test
35 whether it points to a 'derived' cgraph_node as follows.
37 if (is_a <cgraph_node *> (ptr))
38 ....
41 TYPE as_a <TYPE> (pointer)
43 Converts pointer to a TYPE.
45 You can just assume that it is such a node.
47 do_something_with (as_a <cgraph_node *> *ptr);
49 TYPE safe_as_a <TYPE> (pointer)
51 Like as_a <TYPE> (pointer), but where pointer could be NULL. This
52 adds a check against NULL where the regular is_a_helper hook for TYPE
53 assumes non-NULL.
55 do_something_with (safe_as_a <cgraph_node *> *ptr);
57 TYPE dyn_cast <TYPE> (pointer)
59 Converts pointer to TYPE if and only if "is_a <TYPE> pointer". Otherwise,
60 returns NULL. This function is essentially a checked down cast.
62 This functions reduce compile time and increase type safety when treating a
63 generic item as a more specific item.
65 You can test and obtain a pointer to the 'derived' type in one indivisible
66 operation.
68 if (cgraph_node *cptr = dyn_cast <cgraph_node *> (ptr))
69 ....
71 As an example, the code change is from
73 if (symtab_function_p (node))
75 struct cgraph_node *cnode = cgraph (node);
76 ....
81 if (cgraph_node *cnode = dyn_cast <cgraph_node *> (node))
83 ....
86 The necessary conditional test defines a variable that holds a known good
87 pointer to the specific item and avoids subsequent conversion calls and
88 the assertion checks that may come with them.
90 When, the property test is embedded within a larger condition, the
91 variable declaration gets pulled out of the condition. (This approach
92 leaves some room for using the variable inappropriately.)
94 if (symtab_variable_p (node) && varpool (node)->finalized)
95 varpool_analyze_node (varpool (node));
97 becomes
99 varpool_node *vnode = dyn_cast <varpool_node *> (node);
100 if (vnode && vnode->finalized)
101 varpool_analyze_node (vnode);
103 Note that we have converted two sets of assertions in the calls to varpool
104 into safe and efficient use of a variable.
106 TYPE safe_dyn_cast <TYPE> (pointer)
108 Like dyn_cast <TYPE> (pointer), except that it accepts null pointers
109 and returns null results for them.
112 If you use these functions and get a 'inline function not defined' or a
113 'missing symbol' error message for 'is_a_helper<....>::test', it means that
114 the connection between the types has not been made. See below.
117 EXTENDING THE GENERIC TYPE FACILITY
119 Each connection between types must be made by defining a specialization of the
120 template member function 'test' of the template class 'is_a_helper'. For
121 example,
123 template <>
124 template <>
125 inline bool
126 is_a_helper <cgraph_node *>::test (symtab_node *p)
128 return p->type == SYMTAB_FUNCTION;
131 If a simple reinterpret_cast between the pointer types is incorrect, then you
132 must also specialize the template member function 'cast'. Failure to do so
133 when needed may result in a crash. For example,
135 template <>
136 template <>
137 inline bool
138 is_a_helper <cgraph_node *>::cast (symtab_node *p)
140 return &p->x_function;
145 #ifndef GCC_IS_A_H
146 #define GCC_IS_A_H
148 /* A generic type conversion internal helper class. */
150 template <typename T>
151 struct is_a_helper
153 template <typename U>
154 static inline bool test (U *p);
155 template <typename U>
156 static inline T cast (U *p);
159 /* Note that we deliberately do not define the 'test' member template. Not
160 doing so will result in a build-time error for type relationships that have
161 not been defined, rather than a run-time error. See the discussion above
162 for when to define this member. */
164 /* This is the generic implementation for casting from one type to another.
165 Do not use this routine directly; it is an internal function. See the
166 discussion above for when to define this member. */
168 template <typename T>
169 template <typename U>
170 inline T
171 is_a_helper <T>::cast (U *p)
173 return reinterpret_cast <T> (p);
177 /* The public interface. */
179 /* A generic test for a type relationship. See the discussion above for when
180 to use this function. The question answered is "Is type T a derived type of
181 type U?". */
183 template <typename T, typename U>
184 inline bool
185 is_a (U *p)
187 return is_a_helper<T>::test (p);
190 /* A generic conversion from a base type U to a derived type T. See the
191 discussion above for when to use this function. */
193 template <typename T, typename U>
194 inline T
195 as_a (U *p)
197 gcc_checking_assert (is_a <T> (p));
198 return is_a_helper <T>::cast (p);
201 /* Similar to as_a<>, but where the pointer can be NULL, even if
202 is_a_helper<T> doesn't check for NULL. */
204 template <typename T, typename U>
205 inline T
206 safe_as_a (U *p)
208 if (p)
210 gcc_checking_assert (is_a <T> (p));
211 return is_a_helper <T>::cast (p);
213 else
214 return NULL;
217 /* A generic checked conversion from a base type U to a derived type T. See
218 the discussion above for when to use this function. */
220 template <typename T, typename U>
221 inline T
222 dyn_cast (U *p)
224 if (is_a <T> (p))
225 return is_a_helper <T>::cast (p);
226 else
227 return static_cast <T> (0);
230 /* Similar to dyn_cast, except that the pointer may be null. */
232 template <typename T, typename U>
233 inline T
234 safe_dyn_cast (U *p)
236 return p ? dyn_cast <T> (p) : 0;
239 #endif /* GCC_IS_A_H */