README.md

REFCPP - Some reflection in C++ for free

REFCPP is a new way of defining C++ classes that gives you some limited-but-sometimes-enough reflection for free, in both compile and run time.

The following example shows an ordinary C++ class first and then its version using REFCPP.

class Person
{
public:

    std::string getName() const { return name; }
    void setName(std::string name_) { name = name_; }

    std::string getSurname() const { return surname; }
    void setSurname(std::string surname_) { surname = surname_; }

    uint32_t getAge() const { return age; }
    void setAge(uint32_t age_) { age = age_; }
    
    std::string getFullName() const
    {
        return getName() + " " + getSurname();
    }

protected:
    std::string name;
    std::string surname;
    uint32_t age;
};

REFCPP version:

// Features. Everything is a type! ;)
struct Name    : String {};
struct Surname : String {};
struct Age     : UInt32 {};

struct Person :
    Class< Person,
           Features< Name, Surname, Age >>
{
    std::string getFullName() const
    {
        return get< Name >() + " " + get< Surname >();
    }
};

Run time reflection is given through a hierarchy of type descriptors, defined in ref/Descriptors.hpp. These descriptors were used to implement a simple JSON serializer available in examples/json.hpp.

The following example shows how to use the type descriptors API to iterate over the attributes of a class thus defined.

Person person;

// ...

const ClassDescriptor * classDesc = person.getClassDescriptor();
const FeatureDescriptorVector features =
    classDesc->getAllFeatureDescriptors();

for (size_t i = 0; i < features.size(); i++)
{
    const FeatureDescriptor * featureDesc = features[i];

    Holder h = featureDesc->getValue(&person);
    const TypeDescriptor * typeDesc = h.descriptor();

    if (typeDesc->getKind() == TypeDescriptor::kPrimitive)
    {
        const PrimitiveTypeDescriptor * priTypeDesc =
            typeDesc->as<PrimitiveTypeDescriptor>();
        std::cout << featureDesc->getName() << " = "
            << priTypeDesc->getString(h) << std::endl;
    }
    else
    {
        std::cout << featureDesc->getName() << " = non-printable type!" << std::endl;
    }
}

Compile-time reflection is given through a set of typedefs available within any class thus defined.

Inheritance

Inheritance is supported through the third parameter of Class template, although multiple inheritance is not supported (yet?).

The following example shows how to specify a parent class.

struct Name    : String {};
struct Surname : String {};
struct Age     : UInt32 {};
struct Alive   : Bool {};
struct Emails  : Feature< std::vector< std::string > >{};

// Classes
struct Animal :
    Class< Animal, Features< Alive, Age > >
{
};

struct Person :
    Class< Person,
           Features< Name, Surname, Emails >,
           Animal > // Parent class
{
};

What can this approach be used for?

To avoid having to write anything that involves boilerplate code, such as (de)serializers.