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  4. How to write copy constructor when returning any template object.

How to write copy constructor when returning any template object.

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  • D David Crow

    jhwurmbach wrote:

    Because the board software eats all >...

    Only if it first finds a < character.


    "Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman

    "To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne

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    jhwurmbach
    wrote on last edited by
    #9

    OK, I might have used the wrong word: What are < > called, then? In German, < ( [ and { are all called "Klammer", with the possible distinction as "spitz" (pointed), "rund" (rounded), "eckig" (squared) and "geschweift" (cambered?) when needed.


    Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
    Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

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    • J jhwurmbach

      As long as he does not return a pointer or reference to it, I think there is nothing wrong.


      Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
      Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

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      CPallini
      wrote on last edited by
      #10

      As you are pointing out, it is not an error; anyway, as I pointed out, it is not a good idea (hint: efficiency). :)

      If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.

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      • C CPallini

        As you are pointing out, it is not an error; anyway, as I pointed out, it is not a good idea (hint: efficiency). :)

        If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.

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        jhwurmbach
        wrote on last edited by
        #11

        That is probably premature optimisation. When specifically this copying of the array slows the whole application down, then we can think about how we speed his code up. :-D


        Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
        Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

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        • J jhwurmbach

          That is probably premature optimisation. When specifically this copying of the array slows the whole application down, then we can think about how we speed his code up. :-D


          Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
          Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

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          CPallini
          wrote on last edited by
          #12

          Oh no, this is definitely NOT premature optimization. The original method design is simply bad: whenever you deal with array or (not trivial) objects, reference passing is a must (unless you have strong motivations to do the opposite). Premature optimization is bad. Bad design is even worse. :-D

          If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.

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          • C CPallini

            Oh no, this is definitely NOT premature optimization. The original method design is simply bad: whenever you deal with array or (not trivial) objects, reference passing is a must (unless you have strong motivations to do the opposite). Premature optimization is bad. Bad design is even worse. :-D

            If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.

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            jhwurmbach
            wrote on last edited by
            #13

            OK, you won. I am changing my function definition to

            const CArray& COpenFolderPage::GetPagesPath()

            Oh- wait! The Array is a function-local variable. We *have to* return it by value! The compiler would have to do a copy anyway. We have three objects involved: TargetArray - temporary - Source( local to function) The target being a mere reference is illegal, because the local variable goes out of scope. So, in all possible implementations, two of the three objects can be merged in one by the optimizer, but never all three. The compiler has to copy once. -- modified at 4:58 Monday 19th November, 2007 (This modification overlapped with the replyh


            Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
            Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

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            • J jhwurmbach

              OK, you won. I am changing my function definition to

              const CArray& COpenFolderPage::GetPagesPath()

              Oh- wait! The Array is a function-local variable. We *have to* return it by value! The compiler would have to do a copy anyway. We have three objects involved: TargetArray - temporary - Source( local to function) The target being a mere reference is illegal, because the local variable goes out of scope. So, in all possible implementations, two of the three objects can be merged in one by the optimizer, but never all three. The compiler has to copy once. -- modified at 4:58 Monday 19th November, 2007 (This modification overlapped with the replyh


              Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
              Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

              C Offline
              C Offline
              CPallini
              wrote on last edited by
              #14

              Because the local variable goes out of scope. :-D I know, I'm quite polemical, cheers :rose:

              If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.

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              • C CPallini

                Because the local variable goes out of scope. :-D I know, I'm quite polemical, cheers :rose:

                If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.

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                jhwurmbach
                wrote on last edited by
                #15

                CPallini wrote:

                I know, I'm quite polemical, cheers

                No you are'nt. I was acting faster than I was thinking. But I was just in the processinng of modifying my post... :-D


                Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
                Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

                1 Reply Last reply
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                • J jhwurmbach

                  OK, you won. I am changing my function definition to

                  const CArray& COpenFolderPage::GetPagesPath()

                  Oh- wait! The Array is a function-local variable. We *have to* return it by value! The compiler would have to do a copy anyway. We have three objects involved: TargetArray - temporary - Source( local to function) The target being a mere reference is illegal, because the local variable goes out of scope. So, in all possible implementations, two of the three objects can be merged in one by the optimizer, but never all three. The compiler has to copy once. -- modified at 4:58 Monday 19th November, 2007 (This modification overlapped with the replyh


                  Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
                  Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

                  C Offline
                  C Offline
                  CPallini
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #16

                  What about

                  bool COpenFolderPage::GetPagesPath(CArray < type, type > & pagePathArray )
                  {
                  bool success;

                  // some code using pagePathArray

                  return success;
                  }

                  ? :-D

                  If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.

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                  • C CPallini

                    What about

                    bool COpenFolderPage::GetPagesPath(CArray < type, type > & pagePathArray )
                    {
                    bool success;

                    // some code using pagePathArray

                    return success;
                    }

                    ? :-D

                    If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.

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                    jhwurmbach
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #17

                    Better. Not as expressive, though. Plus it might or might not be faster. E.g. the function could need a very large temporary array in its algorithm. This would then enlarge the callers array, without shrinking it, like a copy would do. Also, it is not as easy to not touch the callers array in case of the call not succeding.


                    Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
                    Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

                    C 1 Reply Last reply
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                    • J jhwurmbach

                      Better. Not as expressive, though. Plus it might or might not be faster. E.g. the function could need a very large temporary array in its algorithm. This would then enlarge the callers array, without shrinking it, like a copy would do. Also, it is not as easy to not touch the callers array in case of the call not succeding.


                      Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
                      Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

                      C Offline
                      C Offline
                      CPallini
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #18

                      jhwurmbach wrote:

                      E.g. the function could need a very large temporary array in its algorithm. This would then enlarge the callers array, without shrinking it, like a copy would do.

                      You can address all the above requirements inside method definition without loss of efficiency (e.g. if you need a temporary array then explicitely instantiate it, no need to pollute caller array). The code snippet shows how to remove an unnecessary copy step. If it is a big advantage or not depends on method logic, of course. :)

                      If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.

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                      • J jhwurmbach

                        OK, I might have used the wrong word: What are < > called, then? In German, < ( [ and { are all called "Klammer", with the possible distinction as "spitz" (pointed), "rund" (rounded), "eckig" (squared) and "geschweift" (cambered?) when needed.


                        Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
                        Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

                        D Offline
                        D Offline
                        David Crow
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #19

                        jhwurmbach wrote:

                        OK, I might have used the wrong word...

                        No, I was just saying that replacing both of them was not necessary. Simply replacing the left bracket is all that's necessary.

                        jhwurmbach wrote:

                        What are < > called, then?

                        Angle brackets.


                        "Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman

                        "To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne

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