Question

I would like to overload the operator<< to allow it to work with shared_ptr.

template<typename T>
struct foo
{
    virtual foo& operator<<(const T& e) = 0;
};

foo<int> f1;
f1 << 1;

std::shared_ptr<foo<int>> f2(new foo<int>());
f2 << 1;

My first try is the following, but the problem is that it with also enable the behavior for any class.

template<typename T, typename U>
const std::shared_ptr<T>& operator<<(const std::shared_ptr<T>& o, const U& e)
{
    *o << e;
    return o;
}

My second try is the following:

template<typename T, typename U>
const std::shared_ptr<foo<T>>& operator<<(const std::shared_ptr<foo<T>>& o, const U& e)
{
    *o << e;
    return o;
}

The problem with this solution is not work for types inheriting foo since T cannot be automatically deduced.

So I could skip U and use T instead, in which case T will be deduced from the second argument and the argument for o can be converted into foo<T>.

template<typename T, typename U>
const std::shared_ptr<foo<T>>& operator<<(const std::shared_ptr<foo<T>>& o, const T& e)
{
    *o << e;
    return o;
}

But then the following will not work:

struct c    
{    
};

struct a
{
    a();
    a(c); // implicit conversion
};

struct b
{
    operator a(); // implicit conversion
};

auto f = std::make_shared<foo<a>>();
f << c; // doesn't work.
f << b; // doesn't work.

Any ideas on how make a working solution?

Answer 1

Some options, see the second live at https://ideone.com/26nqr

Given

#include <iostream>
#include <memory>
using namespace std;

template<typename T> struct foo {
    virtual foo& operator<<(const T& e) const { std::cout << "check foo\n"; }
};

//////
// derived instances

struct derived : foo<int> {
    virtual derived& operator<<(const int& e) const { std::cout << "check derived\n"; }
};

template<typename T> struct genericDerived : foo<T> {
    virtual derived& operator<<(const T& e) const { std::cout << "check genericDerived\n"; }
};

Simple: template template arguments

template<typename T, typename U, template <typename> class X>
const std::shared_ptr<X<T>>& operator<<(const std::shared_ptr<X<T>>& o, const U& e)
{
    *o << e;
    return o;
}

int main()
{
    auto f = make_shared<foo<int>>();
    f << 1;

    auto d = make_shared<derived>();
    d << 2; // compile error

    auto g = make_shared<genericDerived<int>>();
    g << 3; // SUCCESS!
}

Completer: SFINAE

The above doesn’t catch derived classes (case 2). To do that, I’d resort to

#include <type_traits>
namespace detail
{
    template<typename Foo, typename T>
        const std::shared_ptr<Foo>& dispatch_lshift(
                  const std::shared_ptr<Foo>& o, const T& e, 
                  const std::true_type& enabler)
        {
            *o << e;
            return o;
        }
}

template<typename Foo, typename T>
    const std::shared_ptr<Foo>& operator<<(const std::shared_ptr<Foo>& o, const T& e)
{
    return detail::dispatch_lshift(o, e, std::is_convertible<Foo*, foo<T>* >());
}

int main()
{
    auto f = make_shared<foo<int>>();
    f << 1;

    auto d = make_shared<derived>();
    d << 2;

    auto g = make_shared<genericDerived<int>>();
    g << 3;

    auto x = make_shared<int>();
    // x << 4; // correctly FAILS to compile    
}