How to pass member functions into a function object...

C++ has many algorithms in the form:

Code:

algo_if ( iterator, iterator, unary_function_object );

Take, for example:

Code:

algo_if (myContainer.begin(), myContainer.end(), bind1st (equal_to<size_t> (), 7))

This is all well and good if myContainer contains ints, but what if it contained strings?

equal_to, or perhaps algo_if, implicitly passes in myContainer.begin() as the first element for comparison, then myContainer.begin()+1, etc.

What if I didn't want to pass in the element of a container...what if I wanted to pass in the string length of each element?!

I have at my disposal strlen, which takes a string argument...
and length, which takes no argument other than the implicit this.

You can write your own function object to compare the string lengths, though you still have to pass in elements of the container.

But how do I "grab at" this implicit iterator that has no name? I can't just say myIter->length() or strlen(*myIter) because there is no myIter.

I researched the mem_fun family but I'm still confused.

Broadly speaking, how can I get access to the member functions of each element being implicitly passed into the above function algo_if?

> What if I didn't want to pass in the element of a container...what if I wanted to pass in the string length of each element?!

I don't think this should be a problem. For example, if you were using find_if on a container of strings, and you wanted to find an element with length equal to 7, you can fairly easily write your own functor, e.g.:

Code:

#include <string>
#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

template <class T>
struct length_is_equal: public std::binary_function<T, typename T::size_type, bool>
{
  bool operator()(T obj, typename T::size_type len) const
  {
    return obj.length()==len;
  }
};


int main()
{  
  std::vector<std::string> strings;
  strings.push_back("Hello");
  strings.push_back("World");
  strings.push_back("abcefg");
  std::vector<std::string>::iterator it = std::find_if(strings.begin(),strings.end(), std::bind2nd(length_is_equal<std::string>(),5));
  if (it!=strings.end())
    std::cout<<*it;
}

Granted, the syntax can be a bit verbose/ugly, but it's not too difficult when you get used to it. (And if you use boost, it might be able to simplify things somewhat)