Printing types including decorations, template metaprogramming, constexpr, what to use?

Question

I have a Trait like this specialized for functions:

template <class Ret, class...Args>
struct FunctionTraits<Ret (*)(Args...)> {
   using ReturnType = Ret;

   template <std::size_t>
   using Parameter = std::tuple_element_t<std::tuple<Args...>>;
};

Now I want to print the signature of the function without losing the decorators.

For that I implemented a metafunction like this:

template <class T>
struct GetTypeInfoString {};

It is specialized for every undecorated type, but I also want to print the decorated types. I am using it like this:

extern constexpr auto intstr = makeStringLiteral("int");

template <>
struct GetTypeInfoString<int> {
   static constexprt auto & value = intstr;
};

Now I already have the basic information, I want to implement a constexpr function:

template <class T>
constexpr const char * getTypeInfo() {
    //Something here...
}

My goal is that I print the type with the decorations, not just the basic type. Namely: int const * [][3], etc...

Answer 1

The question is basically how to get this:

int main()
{
    std::cout << TypeInfo<const int>::value() << std::endl;
    std::cout << TypeInfo<const int&>::value() << std::endl;
    std::cout << TypeInfo<int&&>::value() << std::endl;
    std::cout << TypeInfo<const volatile int&>::value() << std::endl;
}

To produce this:

const int
const int&
int&&
const volatile int&

In a constexpr manner.

Answer:

#include <iostream>
#include <tuple>

template <class T>
struct TypeInfo;

template<std::size_t N>
struct immutable_string
{
    constexpr immutable_string(const char (&s)[N])
    : _data {}
    {
        for (std::size_t i = 0 ; i < N ; ++i)
            _data[i] = s[i];
    }

    constexpr immutable_string()
    : _data {}
    {
    }

    constexpr char& operator[](std::size_t i) { return _data[i]; }
    constexpr const char& operator[](std::size_t i) const { return _data[i]; }

    using ref = const char (&)[N];

    constexpr ref data() const { return _data; }
    static constexpr std::size_t size() { return N-1; }

    char _data[N];
};

template<std::size_t N>
std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, immutable_string<N> s)
{
    return os.write(s.data(), s.size());
}

template<std::size_t LN, std::size_t RN>
constexpr auto operator+(immutable_string<LN> l, immutable_string<RN> r)
{
    constexpr std::size_t len = LN + RN - 2;
    immutable_string<len + 1> result;
    std::size_t i = 0;
    for ( ; i < (LN-1) ; ++i)
    {
        result[i] = l[i];
    }
    for (auto j = 0 ; j < (RN-1) ; ++j)
    {
        result[i + j] = r[j];
    }

    return result;
}

template<std::size_t N>
constexpr auto literal(const char (&s)[N])
{
    return immutable_string<N>(s);
}

template <>
struct TypeInfo<int> {
    static constexpr auto value() { return literal("int"); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<const T>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return literal("const ") + TypeInfo<T>::value(); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<volatile T>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return literal("volatile ") + TypeInfo<T>::value(); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<const volatile T>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return literal("const volatile ") + TypeInfo<T>::value(); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<T&>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return TypeInfo<T>::value() + literal("&"); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<T&&>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return TypeInfo<T>::value() + literal("&&"); }
};


int main()
{
    std::cout << TypeInfo<const int>::value() << std::endl;
    std::cout << TypeInfo<const int&>::value() << std::endl;
    std::cout << TypeInfo<int&&>::value() << std::endl;
    std::cout << TypeInfo<const volatile int&>::value() << std::endl;
}

Produces output:

const int
const int&
int&&
const volatile int&

Update:

A more complete/robust example:

#include <iostream>

template <class T>
struct TypeInfo;


template<std::size_t N>
struct immutable_string
{
    constexpr immutable_string(const char (&s)[N])
    : _data {}
    {
        for (std::size_t i = 0 ; i < N ; ++i)
            _data[i] = s[i];
    }

    constexpr immutable_string()
    : _data {}
    {
    }

    constexpr char& operator[](std::size_t i) { return _data[i]; }
    constexpr const char& operator[](std::size_t i) const { return _data[i]; }

    using ref = const char (&)[N];

    constexpr ref data() const { return _data; }
    static constexpr std::size_t size() { return N-1; }

    char _data[N];
};

template<std::size_t N>
std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, immutable_string<N> s)
{
    return os.write(s.data(), s.size());
}

template<std::size_t LN, std::size_t RN>
constexpr auto operator+(immutable_string<LN> l, immutable_string<RN> r)
{
    constexpr std::size_t len = LN + RN - 2;
    immutable_string<len + 1> result;
    std::size_t i = 0;
    for ( ; i < (LN-1) ; ++i)
    {
        result[i] = l[i];
    }
    for (auto j = 0 ; j < (RN-1) ; ++j)
    {
        result[i + j] = r[j];
    }

    return result;
}

template<std::size_t N>
constexpr auto literal(const char (&s)[N])
{
    return immutable_string<N>(s);
}

template <>
struct TypeInfo<int> {
    static constexpr auto value() { return literal("int"); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<const T>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return TypeInfo<T>::value() + literal(" const"); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<volatile T>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return TypeInfo<T>::value() + literal(" volatile"); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<const volatile T>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return TypeInfo<T>::value() + literal(" const volatile"); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<T&>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return TypeInfo<T>::value() + literal("&"); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<T&&>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return TypeInfo<T>::value() + literal("&&"); }
};

template<class T>
struct TypeInfo<T*>
{
    static constexpr auto value() { return TypeInfo<T>::value() + literal("*"); }
};


int main()
{
    std::cout << TypeInfo<const int>::value() << std::endl;
    std::cout << TypeInfo<const int&>::value() << std::endl;
    std::cout << TypeInfo<int&&>::value() << std::endl;
    std::cout << TypeInfo<const volatile int&>::value() << std::endl;
    std::cout << TypeInfo<const volatile int* const* volatile * const volatile **const *&>::value() << std::endl;
}

expected output:

int const
int const&
int&&
int const volatile&
int const volatile* const* volatile* const volatile** const*&