Use Function Adapters to Extend Generic Algorithms' Usage-4 : Page 4

Further Adaptation
Containers of pointers are used, among other things, for implementing of a heterogeneous container:

class Base
{
public:
 virtual void 
 speak() const {std::cout<<"I'm Base"<<std::endl;}
};
class Derived : pubic Base
{
public:
 void speak()const {std::cout<<"I'm Derived"<<std::endl;}
};

std::vector<Base *> vpb; //heterogeneous
vpb.push_back(new Base);
vpb.push_back(new Derived);
vpb.push_back(new Base);

Suppose you want to call speak() for every element of vpb. Again, using for_each() is a preferable choice. However, because vpb stores pointers rather than objects, you have to use a different adapter this time, namely mem_fun():

	Figure 3: This shows the output from this for_each() call:.

std::for_each (vpb.begin(), 
               vpb.end(), 
               std::mem_fun(&Base::speak));

Figure 3 shows the output of this for_each() call.

Summary
The Standard Library defines a rich set of adapters:

• ptr_fun takes a function pointer as its argument and returns a function pointer adaptor, which is a kind of a function object.
• The mem_fun_ref family binds a member function to an object's reference and returns a function object.
• The mem_fun functions binds a member function to an object's pointer and returns a matching function object.

Each adapter is classified according to these criteria: does it apply to an ordinary function or a member function? If it's the latter, the adapter functions contain the affix mem_. If the adapter binds a member function to a reference rather than a pointer, it contains the affix ref_. Finally, if the member function takes an argument, then the adapter contains the affix fun1_ instead of fun_. For example mem_fun1_ref() binds a member function taking one argument to a reference, whereas mem_fun1() binds a member function taking one argument to a pointer.

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