CGAL 4.7 - STL Extensions for CGAL: CGAL::Object Class Reference

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CGAL 4.7 - STL Extensions for CGAL

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CGAL::Object Class Reference
STL Extensions for CGAL Reference

`#include <CGAL/Object.h>`

## Definition

Some functions can return different types of objects.

A typical C++ solution to this problem is to derive all possible return types from a common base class, to return a pointer to this class and to perform a dynamic cast on this pointer. The class `Object` provides an abstraction. An object `obj` of the class `Object` can represent an arbitrary class. The only operations it provides is to make copies and assignments, so that you can put them in lists or arrays. Note that `Object` is NOT a common base class for the elementary classes. Therefore, there is no automatic conversion from these classes to `Object`. Rather this is done with the global function `make_object()`. This encapsulation mechanism requires the use of `assign` or `object_cast` to use the functionality of the encapsulated class.

This class is similar in spirit to `boost::any`.

Example

In the following example, the object class is used as return value for the intersection computation, as there are possibly different return values.

{
typedef Cartesian<double> K;
typedef K::Point_2 Point_2;
typedef K::Segment_2 Segment_2;
Point_2 point;
Segment_2 segment, segment_1, segment_2;
std::cin >> segment_1 >> segment_2;
Object obj = intersection(segment_1, segment_2);
if (assign(point, obj)) {
//do something with point
} else if (assign(segment, obj)) {
// do something with segment
}
//there was no intersection
}

A more efficient way to access the object is to use `object_cast`, which allows to skip a default construction and assignment:

{
typedef Cartesian<double> K;
typedef K::Point_2 Point_2;
typedef K::Segment_2 Segment_2;
Segment_2 segment_1, segment_2;
std::cin >> segment_1 >> segment_2;
Object obj = intersection(segment_1, segment_2);
if (const Point_2 * point = object_cast<Point_2>(&obj)) {
// do something with *point
} else if (const Segment_2 * segment = object_cast<Segment_2>(&obj)) {
// do something with *segment
}
// there was no intersection
}

The intersection routine itself looks roughly as follows:

template < class Kernel >
Object intersection(Segment_2<Kernel> s1, Segment_2<Kernel> s2)
{
if ( intersection_is_a_point ) {
Point_2<Kernel> p = ... ;
return make_object(p);
} else if ( intersection_is_a_segment ) {
Segment_2<Kernel> s = ... ;
return make_object(s);
}
// empty intersection
return Object();
}

## Related Functions

(Note that these are not member functions.)
template<class T >
Object | make_object (const T &t)
| Creates an object that contains `t`.
template<class T >
bool | assign (T &c, const Object &o)
| assigns `o` to `c` if `o` was constructed from an object of type `T`. More...
template<class T >
const T * | object_cast (const Object *o)
| Returns a pointer to the object of type `T` stored by `o`, if any, otherwise returns `NULL`.
template<class T >
T | object_cast (const Object &o)
| Returns a copy of the object of type `T` stored by `o`, if any, otherwise throws an exception of type `Bad_object_cast`.

## Creation

Objects of type `Object` are normally created using the global function `make_object()`.
| Object ()
| introduces an empty object.
| Object (const Object &o)
| Copy constructor.
| Object (boost::variant< T...>)
| Implicit converting constructor for compatibility with `boost::variant`.
| Object (boost::optional< boost::variant< T...> >)
| Implicit converting constructor for compatibility with `boost::optional` and `boost::variant`.

## Operations

Object & | operator= (const Object &o)
| Assignment.
bool | empty ()
| returns true, if `obj` does not contain an object of type `T`.
template<class T >
bool | is ()
| returns true, iff `obj` contains an object of type `T`.
const std::type_info & | type () const
| returns the type information of the contained type, or `typeid(void)` if empty.

## Friends And Related Function Documentation

template<class T >

bool assign | ( | T & | c,
|  | const Object & | o
| ) |  |

related

assigns `o` to `c` if `o` was constructed from an object of type `T`.

Returns `true`, if the assignment was possible. For efficiency reasons, we recommend using `object_cast` instead.