What is the proper syntax to bind a typedef type using pybind11?

Question

I have a struct very similar to this:

struct data_point
{
    data_point() = delete;
    data_point(const int& data) :
            m_data(data)
    {}

    int m_data;
};

I also have this type declared as such.

typedef std::vector<data_point> data_list;

The binding for this struct is defined:

PYBIND11_MODULE(data_lib, ref)
{
    py::class_<data_point> dp(ref, "data_point");
    dp.def(py::init<const int&>());
    dp.def_readwrite("m_data", &data_point::m_data);
}

How do I define a binding for the typedef list type? Its not clear to me how to do this in the pybind documentation.

Answer 1

For this specific issue, pybind will automatically interpret an std::vector type as a python list when you include "pybind11/stl.h" . Thus, a binding for this type is unnecessary.

Ex:

#include "pybind11.h"
#include "pybind11/stl.h"

struct data_point
{
    data_point() = delete;
    data_point(const int& data) :
            m_data(data)
    {}
    int m_data;
};

std::vector<data_point> make_vec(){
    return {data_point(20), data_point(18)};
}

PYBIND11_MODULE(data_lib, ref)
{
    py::class_<data_point> dp(ref, "data_point");
    dp.def(py::init<const int&>());
    dp.def_readwrite("m_data", &data_point::m_data);

    ref.def("make_vec", &make_vec, "A function that returns a vector of data_points");
}

In python, when you import the data_lib library you will be able to use functions that return lists of data_point.

import data_lib
p = data_lib.make_vec()
print len(p)

output: 2