I am new to python, I have looked at boost python, and it looks very
impressive. However going through the introduction I can not find
any examples where, vector of objects are returned as python list/tuples.
i.e Take this example, I want to expose class X, Cont and all its functions.
critical bit being return a vector of X's or strings to python
class X {};
class Cont {
.....
// how can this be exposed using boost python
const std::vector<X>& const_ref_x_vec() const { return x_vec_;}
std::vector<X> value_x_vec() const { return x_vec;}
const std::vector<std::string>& const_ref_str_vec() const { return str_vec_;}
std::vector<std::string> value_str_vec() const { return str_vec_; }
...
private:
std::vector<X> x_vec_;
std::vector<std::string> str_vec_;
};
My own fruitless attempt at trying to expose the functions like
const_ref_x_vec(), value_x_vec(),etc just leads to compile errors.
from googling around I have not seen any example that support returning vectors
by value or reference. Is this even possible with boost python?
are there any workarounds ? should I be using SWIG for this case ?
Any help appreciated.
Avtar
Autopulated's reason was essentially correct, but the code was more complicated then necessary.
The vector_indexing_suite can do all that work for you:
class_< std::vector<X> >("VectorOfX")
.def(vector_indexing_suite< std::vector<X> >() )
;
There is a map_indexing_suite as well.
Because you can't expose template types to python you have to explicitly expose each sort of vector that you want to use, for example this is from my code:
Generic template to wrap things:
namespace bp = boost::python;
inline void IndexError(){
PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IndexError, "Index out of range");
bp::throw_error_already_set();
}
template<class T>
struct vec_item{
typedef typename T::value_type V;
static V& get(T& x, int i){
static V nothing;
if(i < 0) i += x.size();
if(i >= 0 && i < int(x.size())) return x[i];
IndexError();
return nothing;
}
static void set(T& x, int i, V const& v){
if(i < 0) i += x.size();
if(i >= 0 && i < int(x.size())) x[i] = v;
else IndexError();
}
static void del(T& x, int i){
if(i < 0) i += x.size();
if(i >= 0 && i < int(x.size())) x.erase(x.begin() + i);
else IndexError();
}
static void add(T& x, V const& v){
x.push_back(v);
}
};
Then, for each container:
// STL Vectors:
// LineVec
bp::class_< std::vector< Line > >("LineVec")
.def("__len__", &std::vector< Line >::size)
.def("clear", &std::vector< Line >::clear)
.def("append", &vec_item< std::vector< Line > >::add,
bp::with_custodian_and_ward<1, 2>()) // let container keep value
.def("__getitem__", &vec_item< std::vector< Line > >::get,
bp::return_value_policy<bp::copy_non_const_reference>())
.def("__setitem__", &vec_item< std::vector< Line > >::set,
bp::with_custodian_and_ward<1,2>()) // to let container keep value
.def("__delitem__", &vec_item< std::vector< Line > >::del)
.def("__iter__", bp::iterator< std::vector< Line > >())
;
// ...
A similar approach is possible for std::map
.
I used lots of help from wiki.python.org when writing this.