I have a function f that takes a string as input. I usually want to provide a string literal, e.g., f("hello"). However, I want to implement another function g that builds upon f:
std::string f(const std::string&& x) {
return x + " world";
}
std::string g(const std::string&& x) {
std::string res = f(x); // problem: rvalue reference to std::string cannot bind to lvalue of type std::string
res += "!";
return res;
}
int main() {
std::string res_a = f("hello");
std::string res_b = g("world");
return 0;
}
How can I achieve this in C++11/14 in a way that I can use f with string literals as well as variables?
>Solution :
A generic way of solving the problem of a function taking both l-value and r-value references is to use templated functions like so-
template <typename T>
T f(T&& val) {
}
template <typename T>
T g(T&& val) {
T some_val = f(std::forward<T>(val));
}
std::foward<T>(val) forwards an l-value as an l-value and an r-value as an r-value, just as its name implies.
By templating the function, you ensure that this logic works for any type and not just strings.