Sum type in variadic template

Question

I have a template function defined for variadic templates of two kinds:

template<typename ...A>
void foo(std::shared_future<A>... args) {
    // ...
}

template<typename ...A>
void foo(std::future<A>&... args) {
    // ...
}

This works for foo(a, b, c) if a , b and c are either all futures, or all shared futures. How can I adapt this code to work for any mix of both types templates , ie both shared and raw futures in this case?

Answer 1

You can first accept arbitrary types Futures... and then use SFINAE to restrict them to std::[shared_]future :

template<class>
struct is_future_or_shared_future : std::false_type {};

template<class T>
struct is_future_or_shared_future<std::future<T>> : std::true_type {};

template<class T>
struct is_future_or_shared_future<std::shared_future<T>> : std::true_type {};

template<class... Futures, typename = std::enable_if_t<
    std::conjunction_v<is_future_or_shared_future<Futures>...>>>
void foo(Futures&... args) {
    // ...
}

If you want to take both lvalues and rvalues, use forwarding references:

template<class T>
using remove_cvref_t = std::remove_cv_t<std::remove_reference_t<T>>;

template<class... Futures, typename = std::enable_if_t<         
    std::conjunction_v<is_future_or_shared_future<remove_cvref_t<Futures>>...>>>
void foo(Futures&&... args) {
    // ...
}

To access the inner type you can use a traits class:

template<class>
struct inner_type;

template<class T>
struct inner_type<std::future<T>> { 
    using type = T;
};

template<class T>
struct inner_type<std::shared_future<T>> {
    using type = T;
};

and then write:

typename B = std::result_of_t<
    F(typename inner_type<remove_cvref_t<Futures>>::type...)>;