cpp/utility/functional/reference wrapper: Difference between revisions

template< class T >
class reference_wrapper;

std::reference_wrapper is a class template that wraps a reference in a copyable, assignable object. It is frequently used as a mechanism to store references inside standard containers (like std::vector or std::pair) which can not normally hold references.

Specifically, std::reference_wrapper is a Template:concept and Template:concept wrapper around a reference to object or reference to function of type T. Instances of std::reference_wrapper are objects (they can be copied or stored in containers) but they are implicitly convertible to T&, so that they can be used as arguments with the functions that take the underlying type by reference.

Helper functions std::ref and std::cref are often used to generate std::reference_wrapper objects.

std::reference_wrapper is also used to pass objects to std::bind or to the constructor of std::thread by reference.

Member types

Member functions

Example

#include <algorithm>
#include <list>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <functional>

int main()
{
    std::list<int> l = {-4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4};
 
    std::vector<std::reference_wrapper<int>> v(l.begin(), l.end());
    std::random_shuffle(v.begin(), v.end());

    std::vector<std::reference_wrapper<int>> v2(v.begin(), v.end());
    std::partition(v2.begin(), v2.end(), [](int n){return n<0;});

    std::cout << "Contents of the list: ";
    for(int n: l) {
        std::cout << n << ' ';
    }
    std::cout << '\n';

    std::cout << "Contents of the list, shuffled: ";
    for(int i: v) {
        std::cout << i << ' ';
    }
    std::cout << '\n';

    std::cout << "Shuffled elements, partitioned: ";
    for(int i: v2) {
        std::cout << i << ' ';
    }
    std::cout << '\n';
}

Contents of the list: -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 
Contents of the list, shuffled: 0 -1 3 4 -4 1 -2 -3 2 
Shuffled elements, partitioned: -3 -1 -2 -4 4 1 3 0 2

See also