Question

Consider the following snippet:

class Foo {
public:
    Foo( int Value );

    // other stuff
};

std::list< boost::shared_ptr< Foo > > ListOfFoo = list_of( 1 )( 2 )( 3 )( 4 )( 5 );

This does not work out of the box. What is the simplest way to make this work, or is there any method to assign values to ListOfFoo as simple as that?

Answer 1

boost::assign::ptr_list_of lets you construct a Boost pointer container with a very simple syntax. You can extend it through private inheritance so that it lets you create containers of shared_ptr:

template< class T > 
struct shared_ptr_list : boost::assign_detail::generic_ptr_list<T>
{
    typedef boost::assign_detail::generic_ptr_list<T> Base;

    template< class Seq >
    operator Seq() const 
    {
        Seq result;
        for(typename Base::impl_type::iterator it = Base::values_.begin(), e = Base::values_.end(); it != e; ++it)
            result.push_back(typename Seq::value_type(&*it));
        Base::values_.release().release();
        return result;
    }     

    template< class U >
    shared_ptr_list& operator()( const U& u )
    {
        return (shared_ptr_list&)boost::assign_detail
               ::generic_ptr_list<T>::operator()(u);
    }    
};

template< class T, class U >
shared_ptr_list<T> shared_ptr_list_of( const U& t )
{
    return shared_ptr_list<T>()(t);
}

It looks a bit ugly but then it’s really convenient to use:

int main()
{
    using boost::shared_ptr;
    std::deque<shared_ptr<Foo> > deq = shared_ptr_list_of<Foo>(1)(2)(3);
}