Solve the Forwarding Problem and Simulate Containers of References-3 : Page 3

Second Helpings
The helper function ref():

reference_wrapper<T> ref(T& t);

can be used as a short and convenient alternative to typing reference_wrapper<int> (n):

//same as vi.push_back( reference_wrapper<int>(n));
vi.push_back(ref(n));

In places where a reference to a const object is needed, use the helper function cref():

reference_wrapper<const T> cref(const T& t);

cref() takes a reference to a const object and returns a matching reference_wrapper<const T> that provides an implicit conversion to const T&. For example, you can use cref() to create a std::tr1::tuple object that stores references to const:

#include <tuple>
#include<utility>
using std::tr1::tuple;
using std::tr1::make_tuple;

A a; const A ca = a;

tuple <const A&> cra(cref(ca));
make_tuple(ref(a)); // tuple <A&> 
tuple <A> t(a);

Author's Note: Technically speaking, const T& is a (non-const) reference to const T, not a const reference to T (C++ doesn't have const references anyway). However, the term "const reference" is used frequently in the C++ literature to denote "reference to const".

Similarly, a reference wrapper can be used with the std::tr1::function facility to create references to function objects and references to const function objects:

class Data 
{
private:
 vector <pair<int, int> > records;
public:
 bool operator()(int x, int y)
 {
   records.push_back(make_pair(x, y));
   return x < y;
 }
};
    
Data rec;
function <bool(int, int)> func = ref(rec);

Wrap up
The reference wrapper library is a small, but valuable, enhancement to standard C++. Several other TR1 components, like tuples and std::tr1::function, depend on it. As you have seen, this small library has useful applications in everyday C++ programming as well.

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