Question

I’d like a pointer wrapper class that acts just like a raw pointer but also saves a special integer along with the pointer (Type’s index in the array it came from)

I managed to have it behave mostly like a pointer. I am aware that the pointer comparison solution might not be optimal but that’s not my main problem.
I want the wrapper to be constructed with 2 parameters(pointer,indexToArr), unless the pointer is NULL – then I don’t care about indexToArr.

The problem I’m trying to solve is how to allow returning NULL just like a normal pointer allows.
current solution uses an ASSERT. But I want something that works in compile-time. something in the spirit of a specialized template method – allowing only NULL as its argument.

Current version:

class PtrWrapper
{
public:
    PtrWrapper(Type* ptr, int indToArr) 
        : m_ptr(ptr), m_indexToArr(indToArr){}

    //allow returning NULL, only NULL
    PtrWrapper(Type* ptr) : m_ptr(NULL), m_indexToArr(-1) {ASSERT(ptr == NULL);}

    Type* operator->() const {return m_ptr;}
    Type& operator*() const {return *m_ptr;}
    int IndexToArr() const {return m_indexToArr;}

    //for pointer comparison
    operator Type*() const {return m_ptr;}

private:
    Type* m_ptr;
    int m_indexToArr;
};

Any ideas, suggestions?

Thanks,
Leo

Answer 1

template<typename Type>
class PtrWrapper
{
    typedef struct { } NotType;
public:
    Ptr() { }
    Ptr(const NotType* nullPtr) { }
    Ptr(Type* p, int index) { }
};

You can exploit the fact that literal NULL / 0 can be auto-cast to any pointer type. Create a type that is NOT T, and a constructor which takes a single pointer to that type which nobody will ever use. Now you can handle PtrWrapper<T> x(NULL); explicitly.

Of course as others have said, this is only going to work if NULL is known at compile-time.