[boost] property_tree iterators

Subject: [boost] property_tree iterators
From: Chris Meyer (cmeyer1969+boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-05-12 20:25:54

I've been using property_tree and it is very useful to me.

It's easy to add typed data to the tree using something like

MyType myvar[10];
for (i=0; i<10; ++i)
        pt.put(key, myvar[i], true);

I can also implement my own translator to convert MyType to a string
suitable for serializing to XML, JSON, or whatever.

However, if I go to retrieve this data, things are less refined.

Iterating over all elements with a given key requires something like this:

ptree::key_compare comp;
BOOST_FOREACH(ptree::value_type &v, pt)
{
    if (!comp(v.first, key) && !comp(key, v.first))
    {
        MyType myvar = convertStringToMyType(v.second.data());
        doSomething(myvar);
    }
}

Perhaps there should be a templatized member function which uses the
translator to automatically iterate all values of a particular key and
have it converted to the desired data type.

Then I could use something like:

BOOST_FOREACH(MyType myvar, pt.get_all<MyType>(key))
{
        doSomething(myvar);
}

Is this possible? Or is there something I'm missing from the existing
API that allows me to do this?