How to make boost unordered_map to support flyweight<string>

Question

I am trying to do the following:

boost::unordered_map<boost::flyweight<std::string>, boost::flyweight<std::string> > map;

        boost::flyweight<std::string> foo(name);
        map[foo] = foo;

But the compiler complains: "error C2665: 'boost::hash_value' : none of the 17 overloads could convert all the argument types".

But I have defined the following function:

std::size_t hash_value(const boost::flyweight<std::string> & b)
{
    boost::hash<std::string> hasher;
    const std::string & str = b.get();
    return hasher(str);
}
bool operator==(const boost::flyweight<std::string>& f, const boost::flyweight<std::string> & second)
{
    return f.get() == second.get();
}

But it doesn´t compile.

What do I need to do to make boost unordered_map to support flyweight?

[EDIT] I got it to work with the following code:

    struct flyweight_hash
    {
        std::size_t operator()(const boost::flyweight<std::string> &elm) const
        {
            boost::hash<std::string> hasher;
            const std::string & str = elm.get();
            return hasher(str);
        }
    };

and passed it as a template parameter to the construction of the map:

boost::unordered_map<boost::flyweight<std::string>, boost::flyweight<std::string> , flyweight_hash > map;

In this case I don´t understand way overloading hash_value didn´t worked.

Answer 1

boost::hash calls hash_value through argument dependent lookup (ADL). You are trying to define a hash_value function for a class in namespace boost. Hence your hash_value function would need to go into this namespace as well for ADL to work. Unfortunately, adding functions to a foreign namespace is rather evil and should be avoided. Your solution of using a custom hasher seems fine.

A little example code to illustrate:

namespace boost {
  // somewhere in boost
  template<typename T>
  std::size_t hash(const T& t) { 
    // call using ADL
    // e.g. if called with object of class type foo::bar this will
    // pick up foo::hash_value despite the lack of namespace
    // qualification
    return hash_value(t); 
  }
}

// your hash_value (presumably in the global namespace)
// not picked up by above call
std::size_t hash_value(boost::flyweight<T>...);

namespace boost {
  // this would be picked up but is slightly evil
  std::size_t hash_value(boost::flyweight<T>...);
}