gcc/is-a.h

   1 /* Dynamic testing for abstract is-a relationships.
   2    Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   3    Contributed by Lawrence Crowl.
   4
   5 This file is part of GCC.
   6
   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.
  11
  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.
  16
  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/>.  */
  20
  21
  22 /* This header generic type query and conversion functions.
  23
  24
  25 USING THE GENERIC TYPE FACILITY
  26
  27
  28 The user functions are:
  29
  30 bool is_a <TYPE> (pointer)
  31
  32     Tests whether the pointer actually points to a more derived TYPE.
  33
  34     Suppose you have a symtab_node_def *ptr, AKA symtab_node ptr.  You can test
  35     whether it points to a 'derived' cgraph_node as follows.
  36
  37       if (is_a <cgraph_node> (ptr))
  38         ....
  39
  40
  41 TYPE *as_a <TYPE> (pointer)
  42
  43     Converts pointer to a TYPE*.
  44
  45     You can just assume that it is such a node.
  46
  47       do_something_with (as_a <cgraph_node> *ptr);
  48
  49 TYPE *dyn_cast <TYPE> (pointer)
  50
  51     Converts pointer to TYPE* if and only if "is_a <TYPE> pointer".  Otherwise,
  52     returns NULL.  This function is essentially a checked down cast.
  53
  54     This functions reduce compile time and increase type safety when treating a
  55     generic item as a more specific item.
  56
  57     You can test and obtain a pointer to the 'derived' type in one indivisible
  58     operation.
  59
  60       if (cgraph_node *cptr = dyn_cast <cgraph_node> (ptr))
  61         ....
  62
  63     As an example, the code change is from
  64
  65       if (symtab_function_p (node))
  66         {
  67           struct cgraph_node *cnode = cgraph (node);
  68           ....
  69         }
  70
  71     to
  72
  73       if (cgraph_node *cnode = dyn_cast <cgraph_node> (node))
  74         {
  75           ....
  76         }
  77
  78     The necessary conditional test defines a variable that holds a known good
  79     pointer to the specific item and avoids subsequent conversion calls and
  80     the assertion checks that may come with them.
  81
  82     When, the property test is embedded within a larger condition, the
  83     variable declaration gets pulled out of the condition.  (This approach
  84     leaves some room for using the variable inappropriately.)
  85
  86       if (symtab_variable_p (node) && varpool (node)->finalized)
  87         varpool_analyze_node (varpool (node));
  88
  89     becomes
  90
  91       varpool_node *vnode = dyn_cast <varpool_node> (node);
  92       if (vnode && vnode->finalized)
  93         varpool_analyze_node (vnode);
  94
  95     Note that we have converted two sets of assertions in the calls to varpool
  96     into safe and efficient use of a variable.
  97
  98
  99 If you use these functions and get a 'inline function not defined' or a
 100 'missing symbol' error message for 'is_a_helper<....>::test', it means that
 101 the connection between the types has not been made.  See below.
 102
 103
 104 EXTENDING THE GENERIC TYPE FACILITY
 105
 106 Each connection between types must be made by defining a specialization of the
 107 template member function 'test' of the template class 'is_a_helper'.  For
 108 example,
 109
 110   template <>
 111   template <>
 112   inline bool
 113   is_a_helper <cgraph_node>::test (symtab_node_def *p)
 114   {
 115     return p->symbol.type == SYMTAB_FUNCTION;
 116   }
 117
 118 If a simple reinterpret_cast between the pointer types is incorrect, then you
 119 must also specialize the template member function 'cast'.  Failure to do so
 120 when needed may result in a crash.  For example,
 121
 122   template <>
 123   template <>
 124   inline bool
 125   is_a_helper <cgraph_node>::cast (symtab_node_def *p)
 126   {
 127     return &p->x_function;
 128   }
 129
 130 */
 131
 132 #ifndef GCC_IS_A_H
 133 #define GCC_IS_A_H
 134
 135 /* A generic type conversion internal helper class.  */
 136
 137 template <typename T>
 138 struct is_a_helper
 139 {
 140   template <typename U>
 141   static inline bool test (U *p);
 142   template <typename U>
 143   static inline T *cast (U *p);
 144 };
 145
 146 /* Note that we deliberately do not define the 'test' member template.  Not
 147    doing so will result in a build-time error for type relationships that have
 148    not been defined, rather than a run-time error.  See the discussion above
 149    for when to define this member.  */
 150
 151 /* This is the generic implementation for casting from one type to another.
 152    Do not use this routine directly; it is an internal function.  See the
 153    discussion above for when to define this member.  */
 154
 155 template <typename T>
 156 template <typename U>
 157 inline T *
 158 is_a_helper <T>::cast (U *p)
 159 {
 160   return reinterpret_cast <T *> (p);
 161 }
 162
 163
 164 /* The public interface.  */
 165
 166 /* A generic test for a type relationship.  See the discussion above for when
 167    to use this function.  The question answered is "Is type T a derived type of
 168    type U?".  */
 169
 170 template <typename T, typename U>
 171 inline bool
 172 is_a (U *p)
 173 {
 174   return is_a_helper<T>::test (p);
 175 }
 176
 177 /* A generic conversion from a base type U to a derived type T.  See the
 178    discussion above for when to use this function.  */
 179
 180 template <typename T, typename U>
 181 inline T *
 182 as_a (U *p)
 183 {
 184   gcc_assert (is_a <T> (p));
 185   return is_a_helper <T>::cast (p);
 186 }
 187
 188 /* A generic checked conversion from a base type U to a derived type T.  See
 189    the discussion above for when to use this function.  */
 190
 191 template <typename T, typename U>
 192 inline T *
 193 dyn_cast (U *p)
 194 {
 195   if (is_a <T> (p))
 196     return is_a_helper <T>::cast (p);
 197   else
 198     return static_cast <T *> (0);
 199 }
 200
 201 #endif  /* GCC_IS_A_H  */