Question

I am trying to implement a free operator function in order to stream values of arbitrary data type into some container class (DataVector).
I did a template for basic data types and some specializations for the complex data types used in my project (examples covers std::string only).
To make sure the template won’t be used with a data type which is not properly handled by the basic implementation, I want to restrict instatiation using type traits (is_integral). Several attempts embedding is_enabled is_integral into the signature of the operator failed and I ended up with the implementation show in the example below.

typedef std::vector<unsigned char> DataVector;

template<typename T>
DataVector& operator <<(DataVector& vecArchive, T dataToAppend)
{
    if (boost::is_integral<T>::value == true)
    {
        // ... do something
        return vecArchive;
    }
    BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT(false);
};

template<> inline
DataVector& operator << <string> (DataVector& vecArchive, string dataToAppend)
{
    // do something different
    return vecArchive;
};

The problem is that it won’t compile, even for integral data types. I guess BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT cannot be used in conditional expressions. How can it be done? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

main()
{
    DataVector vecTel;
    vecTel << (int)5;  // ok
    vecTel << std::string("Hello World");  // ok
    vecTel << std::map(int, int)  // must fail
}

Compiler error:

d:…\TcpSerializable.h(52) : error C2027: use of undefined type ‘boost::STATIC_ASSERTION_FAILURE’
with
[
x=false
]
.\Telegram050.cpp(38) : see reference to function template instantiation ‘BasisKlassen::DataVector &BasisKlassen::operator <<(BasisKlassen::DataVector &,T)’ being compiled
with
[
T=int
]

Answer 1

I am no expert on boost, but from the look of it BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT(0) will compile even if the boost::is_integral<T>::value returns true (similar all other normal functions). Hence you get the compiler error (as intended when static assert’s condition returns false). To fix this, the simplest would be change the the function to something like:

template<typename T>
DataVector& operator <<(DataVector& vecArchive, T dataToAppend)
{
    BOOST_STATIC_ASSERT(boost::is_integral<T>::value);
    // ... do something
    return vecArchive;

};