How to assign to members of a struct object?

Question

I'm taking my first steps with Boost.Hana, so please bear with me. I have

#include <boost/hana.hpp>
namespace hana = boost::hana;
using namespace hana::literals;

#include <string>

struct A
{
  int integer;
  std::string string;
};

int main()
{
  auto tuple = hana::make_tuple(42, "42");
  A a;
  hana::for_each(hana::zip(hana::members(a), tuple), [](auto& element) { element[0_c] = element[1_c]; });
}

This is my attempt at assigning each tuple element to its respective (sequential) member of A. This does not work (see live example for complete error). It boils down to

main.cpp:19:54: note: candidate function [with $0 = boost::hana::tuple<int, int>] not viable: expects an l-value for 1st argument

 hana::for_each(hana::zip(hana::members(a), input), [](auto& element) { element[0_c] = element[1_c]; });
                                                    ^

I read in the documentation that Hana algorithms have by-value semantics, but then how would one go about doing this kind of thing? Is constructing an A from the hana::tuple the only thing possible?

Answer 1

To modify a Struct in place, use hana::accessors which provides a tuple of hana::pairs each with a key and an accessor function. Also since we don't have reflection yet you need to use one of the macros like BOOST_HANA_ADAPT_STRUCT to implement A as a hana::Struct .

The other answer addresses the lambda taking an rvalue because the zipped tuple is a temporary object.

#include <cassert>
#include <boost/hana.hpp>
namespace hana = boost::hana;
using namespace hana::literals;

#include <string>

struct A
{
  int integer;
  std::string string;
};
BOOST_HANA_ADAPT_STRUCT(A, integer, string);

int main()
{
  auto tuple = hana::make_tuple(42, "42");
  A a;
  hana::for_each(
    hana::zip(hana::accessors<A>(), tuple),
    [&a](auto&& element) {
      auto accessor_pair = hana::at_c<0>(element);
      auto get_member = hana::second(accessor_pair);
      get_member(a) = hana::at_c<1>(element);
    });

  assert(a.integer == 42 && a.string == "42");
}