Is there a way to instantiate objects from a strin

Question

I have a file: Base.h

class Base;
class DerivedA : public Base;
class DerivedB : public Base;

/*etc...*/

and another file: BaseFactory.h

#include "Base.h"

class BaseFactory
{
public:
  BaseFactory(const string &sClassName){msClassName = sClassName;};

  Base * Create()
  {
    if(msClassName == "DerivedA")
    {
      return new DerivedA();
    }
    else if(msClassName == "DerivedB")
    {
      return new DerivedB();
    }
    else if(/*etc...*/)
    {
      /*etc...*/
    }
  };
private:
  string msClassName;
};

/*etc.*/

Is there a way to somehow convert this string to an actual type (class), so that BaseFactory wouldn't have to know all the possible Derived classes, and have if() for each one of them? Can I produce a class from this string?

I think this can be done in C# through Reflection. Is there something similar in C++?

Answer 1

No there isn't. My preferred solution to this problem is to create a dictionary which maps name to creation method. Classes that want to be created like this then register a creation method with the dictionary. This is discussed in some detail in the GoF patterns book.

Answer 2

---------------
Detail solution for registering the objects, and accessing them with string names.
---------------
1. common.h
#ifndef COMMON_H_
#define COMMON_H_


#include<iostream>
#include<string>
#include<iomanip>
#include<map>

using namespace std;
class Base{
public:
    Base(){cout <<"Base constructor\n";}
    virtual ~Base(){cout <<"Base destructor\n";}
};
#endif /* COMMON_H_ */

2. test1.h
/*
 * test1.h
 *
 *  Created on: 28-Dec-2015
 *      Author: ravi.prasad
 */

#ifndef TEST1_H_
#define TEST1_H_
#include "common.h"

class test1: public Base{
    int m_a;
    int m_b;
public:
    test1(int a=0, int b=0):m_a(a),m_b(b)
    {
        cout <<"test1 constructor m_a="<<m_a<<"m_b="<<m_b<<endl;
    }
    virtual ~test1(){cout <<"test1 destructor\n";}
};



#endif /* TEST1_H_ */

3. test2.h
#ifndef TEST2_H_
#define TEST2_H_
#include "common.h"

class test2: public Base{
    int m_a;
    int m_b;
public:
    test2(int a=0, int b=0):m_a(a),m_b(b)
    {
        cout <<"test1 constructor m_a="<<m_a<<"m_b="<<m_b<<endl;
    }
    virtual ~test2(){cout <<"test2 destructor\n";}
};


#endif /* TEST2_H_ */

3. main.cpp
#include "test1.h"
#include "test2.h"

template<typename T> Base * createInstance(int a, int b) { return new T(a,b); }

typedef std::map<std::string, Base* (*)(int,int)> map_type;

map_type mymap;

int main()
{

    mymap["test1"] = &createInstance<test1>;
    mymap["test2"] = &createInstance<test2>;

     /*for (map_type::iterator it=mymap.begin(); it!=mymap.end(); ++it)
        std::cout << it->first << " => " << it->second(10,20) << '\n';*/

    Base *b = mymap["test1"](10,20);
    Base *b2 = mymap["test2"](30,40);

    return 0;
}

------------------------
Compile and Run it (Have done this with Eclipse)
------------------------
/Output

Base constructor
test1 constructor m_a=10m_b=20
Base constructor
test1 constructor m_a=30m_b=40

Answer 3

boost::functional has a factory template which is quite flexible: http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_54_0/libs/functional/factory/doc/html/index.html

My preference though is to generate wrapper classes which hide the mapping and object creation mechanism. The common scenario I encounter is the need to map different derived classes of some base class to keys, where the derived classes all have a common constructor signature available. Here is the solution I've come up with so far.

#ifndef GENERIC_FACTORY_HPP_INCLUDED

//BOOST_PP_IS_ITERATING is defined when we are iterating over this header file.
#ifndef BOOST_PP_IS_ITERATING

    //Included headers.
    #include <unordered_map>
    #include <functional>
    #include <boost/preprocessor/iteration/iterate.hpp>
    #include <boost/preprocessor/repetition.hpp>

    //The GENERIC_FACTORY_MAX_ARITY directive controls the number of factory classes which will be generated.
    #ifndef GENERIC_FACTORY_MAX_ARITY
        #define GENERIC_FACTORY_MAX_ARITY 10
    #endif

    //This macro magic generates GENERIC_FACTORY_MAX_ARITY + 1 versions of the GenericFactory class.
    //Each class generated will have a suffix of the number of parameters taken by the derived type constructors.
    #define BOOST_PP_FILENAME_1 "GenericFactory.hpp"
    #define BOOST_PP_ITERATION_LIMITS (0,GENERIC_FACTORY_MAX_ARITY)
    #include BOOST_PP_ITERATE()

    #define GENERIC_FACTORY_HPP_INCLUDED

#else

    #define N BOOST_PP_ITERATION() //This is the Nth iteration of the header file.
    #define GENERIC_FACTORY_APPEND_PLACEHOLDER(z, current, last) BOOST_PP_COMMA() BOOST_PP_CAT(std::placeholders::_, BOOST_PP_ADD(current, 1))

    //This is the class which we are generating multiple times
    template <class KeyType, class BasePointerType BOOST_PP_ENUM_TRAILING_PARAMS(N, typename T)>
    class BOOST_PP_CAT(GenericFactory_, N)
    {
        public:
            typedef BasePointerType result_type;

        public:
            virtual ~BOOST_PP_CAT(GenericFactory_, N)() {}

            //Registers a derived type against a particular key.
            template <class DerivedType>
            void Register(const KeyType& key)
            {
                m_creatorMap[key] = std::bind(&BOOST_PP_CAT(GenericFactory_, N)::CreateImpl<DerivedType>, this BOOST_PP_REPEAT(N, GENERIC_FACTORY_APPEND_PLACEHOLDER, N));
            }

            //Deregisters an existing registration.
            bool Deregister(const KeyType& key)
            {
                return (m_creatorMap.erase(key) == 1);
            }

            //Returns true if the key is registered in this factory, false otherwise.
            bool IsCreatable(const KeyType& key) const
            {
                return (m_creatorMap.count(key) != 0);
            }

            //Creates the derived type associated with key. Throws std::out_of_range if key not found.
            BasePointerType Create(const KeyType& key BOOST_PP_ENUM_TRAILING_BINARY_PARAMS(N,const T,& a)) const
            {
                return m_creatorMap.at(key)(BOOST_PP_ENUM_PARAMS(N,a));
            }

        private:
            //This method performs the creation of the derived type object on the heap.
            template <class DerivedType>
            BasePointerType CreateImpl(BOOST_PP_ENUM_BINARY_PARAMS(N,const T,& a))
            {
                BasePointerType pNewObject(new DerivedType(BOOST_PP_ENUM_PARAMS(N,a)));
                return pNewObject;
            }

        private:
            typedef std::function<BasePointerType (BOOST_PP_ENUM_BINARY_PARAMS(N,const T,& BOOST_PP_INTERCEPT))> CreatorFuncType;
            typedef std::unordered_map<KeyType, CreatorFuncType> CreatorMapType;
            CreatorMapType m_creatorMap;
    };

    #undef N
    #undef GENERIC_FACTORY_APPEND_PLACEHOLDER

#endif // defined(BOOST_PP_IS_ITERATING)
#endif // include guard

I am generally opposed to heavy macro use, but I've made an exception here. The above code generates GENERIC_FACTORY_MAX_ARITY + 1 versions of a class named GenericFactory_N, for each N between 0 and GENERIC_FACTORY_MAX_ARITY inclusive.

Using the generated class templates is easy. Suppose you want a factory to create BaseClass derived objects using a string mapping. Each of the derived objects take 3 integers as constructor parameters.

#include "GenericFactory.hpp"

typedef GenericFactory_3<std::string, std::shared_ptr<BaseClass>, int, int int> factory_type;

factory_type factory;
factory.Register<DerivedClass1>("DerivedType1");
factory.Register<DerivedClass2>("DerivedType2");
factory.Register<DerivedClass3>("DerivedType3");

factory_type::result_type someNewObject1 = factory.Create("DerivedType2", 1, 2, 3);
factory_type::result_type someNewObject2 = factory.Create("DerivedType1", 4, 5, 6);

The GenericFactory_N class destructor is virtual to allow the following.

class SomeBaseFactory : public GenericFactory_2<int, BaseType*, std::string, bool>
{
    public:
        SomeBaseFactory() : GenericFactory_2()
        {
            Register<SomeDerived1>(1);
            Register<SomeDerived2>(2);
        }
}; 

SomeBaseFactory factory;
SomeBaseFactory::result_type someObject = factory.Create(1, "Hi", true);
delete someObject;

Note that this line of the generic factory generator macro

#define BOOST_PP_FILENAME_1 "GenericFactory.hpp"

Assumes the generic factory header file is named GenericFactory.hpp