Question

the idea is that I want a class which is wrapped by std::shared_ptr, can still be used
just like they weren’t a pointer, for example the operator= which was defined in my class
can still be used after my class is wrapped by std::shared_ptr.

for example

template <class Ty> class shared_ptr_proxy : public std::shared_ptr<Ty> {
public:
    template<class Other> shared_ptr_proxy& operator=(const Other& rhs)
    {
        (*this->get()) = rhs;
        return *this;
    }
    template<class Other> explicit shared_ptr_proxy(Other * ptr) 
        : std::shared_ptr<Ty>(ptr){};
};

// usage :
shared_ptr_proxy<float> obj = shared_ptr_proxy<float>(new float);
obj = 3.14;

its work, but is there a way that i don’t need to create shared_ptr_proxy or
inheriting a class from std::shared_ptr ?

and

if I do like this, is there a caveat that i should take care of?

Answer 1

It depends on what you want the proxy for. A full proxy might make it look entirely like you had the value, so you’d provide the conversion operators.

In such case, it might not be a good idea to inherit from shared_ptr, though, because you might be inheriting functions that you want to rely on the implicit conversions instead.

Compare how sorting orders the items:

#include <memory>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>

template <class Ty> class shared_ptr_proxy   {
    std::shared_ptr<Ty> ptr;
public:
    template<class Other> explicit shared_ptr_proxy(Other * p) 
        : ptr(std::shared_ptr<Ty>(p)){};

    template<class Other> shared_ptr_proxy& operator=(const Other& other)
    {
        *ptr = other;
        return *this;
    }

    operator Ty& () { return *ptr; }
    operator const Ty& () const { return *ptr; }
};

int main()
{
    std::vector<shared_ptr_proxy<int> > vec {
        shared_ptr_proxy<int>(new int(10)), 
        shared_ptr_proxy<int>(new int(11)), 
        shared_ptr_proxy<int>(new int(9))
    };
    vec.back() = 8;  //use assignment
    std::sort(vec.begin(), vec.end());  //sort based on integer (not pointer) comparison
    for (unsigned i = 0; i != vec.size(); ++i) {
        std::cout << vec[i] << ' ';  //output stored values
    }
}

---

#include <memory>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>

template <class Ty> class shared_ptr_proxy : public std::shared_ptr<Ty>   {
public:
    template<class Other> explicit shared_ptr_proxy(Other * p) 
        : std::shared_ptr<Ty>(p){};

    template<class Other> shared_ptr_proxy& operator=(const Other& other)
    {
        *this->get()= other;
        return *this;
    }

    operator Ty& () { return *this->get(); }
    operator const Ty& () const { return *this->get(); }
};

int main()
{
    std::vector<shared_ptr_proxy<int> > vec {
        shared_ptr_proxy<int>(new int(10)), 
        shared_ptr_proxy<int>(new int(11)), 
        shared_ptr_proxy<int>(new int(9))
    };
    vec.back() = 8;  //the only thing that works
    std::sort(vec.begin(), vec.end());  //sort based on pointer values
    for (unsigned i = 0; i != vec.size(); ++i) {
        std::cout << vec[i] << ' ';  //outputs addresses
    }
}