Obj-C++: template metafunction for recognizing Objective-C classes? - objective-c

Question

Using Objective-C++, can I write a C++ IsObjectiveCClass<T> template metafunction such that IsObjectiveCClass<T>::value is true if and only if T is an Objective-C class?
Exactly what are ObjC classes from the viewpoint of the C / C++ subset of the language? When used in a C / C++ context, MyClass* pointers seem to behave like ordinary C pointers; does that mean that MyClass is also a C type?

Answer 1

Here is a simplistic solution that should work in most (if not all? Can anyone think of when this might fail?) cases (it uses clang 3.0 via xcode 4.2 - use typedefs instead of using aliases for earlier clang versions):
template<class T> struct IsObjectiveCClass
{
using yesT = char (&)[10];
using noT = char (&)[1];
static yesT choose(id);
static noT choose(...);
static T make();
enum { value = sizeof(choose(make())) == sizeof(yesT) };
};

Answer 2

You can read my most recent rant about ObjC++ in this question. Avoid it as much as you can possibly get away with. Definitely don't try to integrate Objective-C into C++ template metaprogramming. The compiler might actually rip a hole in space.
Hyperbole aside, what you're trying to do is likely impossible. Objective-C classes are just structs. (C++ classes actually just structs too.) There's not much compile-time introspection available.
An id is a C pointer to a struct objc_object. At runtime, every object is an id, no matter its class.
typedef struct objc_class *Class;
typedef struct objc_object {
Class isa;
} *id;

Answer 3

As with the accepted answer, you can test whether the type is convertible to id, in C++17:
template <typename T>
struct is_objc_ptr : std::integral_constant<bool,
std::is_convertible_v<T, id> && !std::is_null_pointer_v<T>> {};
template <typename T>
constexpr bool is_objc_ptr_v = is_objc_ptr<T>::value;
Testing:
static_assert(!is_objc_ptr_v<nullptr_t>);
static_assert(!is_objc_ptr_v<int>);
static_assert(!is_objc_ptr_v<char *>);
static_assert(is_objc_ptr_v<id>);
static_assert(is_objc_ptr_v<NSObject *>);
I don't know of a way to discover ObjC inheritance relationships at compile-time; in theory they're changeable at runtime so you would have to query the runtime.

Answer 4

If you look at the implementation of the C++ STL library in Xcode, you can follow the template specialization models of others like std::is_integral or std::is_floating_point:
template <class T> struct isObjcObject : public std::false_type { };
template <> struct isObjcObject<id> : public std::true_type { };
where std::false_type and std::true_type are defined in the <type_traits> header file.
If for whatever reason you don't have std::false_type and std::true_type (depending on your C++ version), you can define them yourself as such:
template<bool B> struct boolean_constant { static constexpr const bool value = B; };
template <class T> struct isObjcObject : public boolean_constant<false> { };
template <> struct isObjcObject<id> : public boolean_constant<true> { };
Note that you can also do this for Objective-C classes too:
template <class T> struct isObjcClass : public std::false_type { };
template <> struct isObjcClass<Class> : public std::true_type { };

Answer 5

I would create a template specialisation for 'id' and 'NSObject*', but you'll always be working against the language because the ObjC type system is not the C++ type system.

Answer 6

Similar to Doug's answer, but slightly simpler:
template<typename T>
inline constexpr bool is_objc_v = std::is_convertible_v<id,T>;
Checking that id is convertible to T – instead of the other way around – avoids false positives for C++ types which have a user-defined implicit conversion to an Obj-C type.