Question

Given POD structures of the general form

struct case_0   { const char *foo;                       };
struct case_1i  { const char *foo; int v0;               };
struct case_1d  { const char *foo; double v0;            };
struct case_2ii { const char *foo; int v0;    int v1;    };
struct case_2id { const char *foo; int v0;    double v1; };
// etc

is it possible to dispatch to (template) members of a function overload set based on the presence or absence of the v0, v1, etc data members — ideally, without any dependence on the specific type of these members — and if so, how? Concretely, given

void
process(const case_0& c)
{
   do_stuff_with(c.foo);
}

template <typename case_1> void   
process(const case_1& c)
{
   do_stuff_with(c.foo, c.v0);
}

template <typename case_2> void
process(const case_2& c)
{
   do_stuff_with(c.foo, c.v0, c.v1);
}

I would like each overload to be selected for all case_* structures that have all the v-members that are used within its body, and — equally important — don’t have any v-members that are not used within its body.

This program must be 100% self-contained, so no Boost, please. C++11 features are okay.

Answer 1

You need to write a set of traits such as has_v0 and has_v1 (which I’m sure has been demonstrated many times on SO) then constrain your overloads using them:

template <typename case_0,
  typename = typename std::enable_if<!has_v0<case_0>::value>::type,
  typename = typename std::enable_if<!has_v1<case_0>::value>::type
>
void
process(const case_0& c)
{
   do_stuff_with(c.foo);
}

template <typename case_1,
  typename = typename std::enable_if<has_v0<case_1>::value>::type,
  typename = typename std::enable_if<!has_v1<case_1>::value>::type
>
void   
process(const case_1& c)
{
   do_stuff_with(c.foo, c.v0);
}

template <typename case_2,
  typename = typename std::enable_if<has_v0<case_2>::value>::type,
  typename = typename std::enable_if<has_v1<case_2>::value>::type
>
void
process(const case_2& c)
{
   do_stuff_with(c.foo, c.v0, c.v1);
}

You can simplify the constraints with something like

template<typename Cond>
  using Require = typename std::enable_if<Cond::value>::type;

e.g.

template <typename case_2,
  typename = Require<has_v0<case_2>>,
  typename = Require<has_v1<case_2>>
>
void
process(const case_2& c)
{
   do_stuff_with(c.foo, c.v0, c.v1);
}