I am using boost::program_options to parse arguments. Because I cannot break compatibility I need to allow specifying some arguments multiple times. I need to do it for example for strings (last one wins) or for booleans (every occurence switches the value).
Let's show what I have on bool (for strings it should be easier because it does not matter what the default is when parameter is used, because it is overwritten with new value). I have my own class BoolValue and custom validate function which switches the value with every occurence. So if you have variable with value false and call program like this
./program -t -t -t
it switches it to true, false, and true again.
I can achieve it with following code and it works ok if default value is false. But sometimes I need the default value to be true (so the example above would switch it to false, true and finally false again).
I can make two classes like TrueValue and FalseValue of course but it does not look nicely. So - can I somehow read the specified default_value inside validate function for initial assignement when still empty?
// my custom class
class BoolOption {
public:
BoolOption(bool initialState = false) : state(initialState) {}
bool getState() const {return state;}
void switchState() {state = !state;}
private:
bool state;
};
// two test variables
BoolOption test1;
BoolOption test2;
// validate
void validate(boost::any &v, std::vector<std::string> const &xs, BoolOption*, long)
{
if (v.empty()) {
v = BoolOption(true); // here is the problem
// it works when default false only (of course)
// I don't know how to read the default_value here
} else {
boost::any_cast<BoolOption&>(v).switchState();
}
}
optionsDescription->add_options()
("test1,t", po::value<BoolOption>(&test1)->default_value(BoolOption(true), "true")->zero_tokens(), "")
("test2,T", po::value<BoolOption>(&test2)->default_value(BoolOption(false), "false")->zero_tokens(), "")
;
// output result
cout << test1.getState() << endl;
cout << test2.getState() << endl;
As stated above very awkward solution would be to have two classes for that purpose, can be done also with template, something like
template <bool B> class SwitchOption {
public:
SwitchOption() : value(B) {}
bool getValue() const {return value;}
void setValue(bool value) {this->value = value;}
void switchState() {value = !value;}
string toStr() {return value ? "true" : "false";}
private:
bool value;
};
// so validate as
template <bool B> void validate(boost::any &v, vector<string> const &xs __unused, SwitchOption<B>*, long)
{
if (v.empty()) {
v = SwitchOption<B>();
}
boost::any_cast<SwitchOption<B>&>(v).switchState();
}
// and add_options like this:
("switch,s", boost::program_options::value<SwitchOption<true> >(&variableName)->default_value(SwitchOption<true>(), "true")->zero_tokens(), "")
// can be done with macro, but still I have to specify "true" here in add_options and also when defying the variable itself as
// SwitchOption<true> variableName;
// which is bad duplication
Lost in too complicated solutions :-)