Question

I’m wondering if something like

template <typename T>
class LazyLoaded
{
    mutable char mem[sizeof T]; //First item in the class to keep alignment issues at bay
    const std::function<void (T&)> initializer;
    mutable bool loaded;
public:
    LazyLoaded() : loaded(false)
    {
        initializer = [] (T&) {};
    }
    LazyLoaded(const std::function<void (T&)>& init) : initializer(init), loaded(false)
    {
    }
    T& Get()
    {
        if (!loaded)
        {
            new (static_cast<void *>(&mem)) T();
            initializer(*static_cast<T*>(&mem));
            loaded = true;
        }
        return *static_cast<T*>(&mem);
    }
    ~LazyLoaded()
    {
        if (loaded)
        {
            static_cast<T*>(&mem)->~T();
        }
    }
};

is possible or makes sense to do. (I think there are issues with this code, but hey, I threw it together in 10 minutes, so….)

Answer 1

It’s called boost::optional. This should provide almost all the necessary functionality.