Re: [Boost-users] identity function

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] identity function
From: Richard Damon (Richard_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-10-01 20:18:08

On 10/1/11 8:57 AM, Krzysztof Żelechowski wrote:
> I use the following function on a regular basis:
>
> template<  class P_T>  P_T const&same (P_T const&p) { return p; }
>
> I use it for two purposes:
>
>    1. to pass an identity function to an API that expects a unary function,
>    2. to help the compiler identify the right chain of type conversions.
>
> The standard uses static_cast for (2), which could be used but it disables
> some compile-time verification so I would rather not use static_cast when
> not absolutely necessary.
>
> I have been unable to find a corresponding feature in Boost (although the
> value factory comes close).  Do you think adding such a function to Boost
> utilities would be worthwhile?
>
> Chris
>
>
That sounds basically like implicit_cast<T>(), which is in implicit_cast.hpp