Using generic std::function objects with member fu

Question

For one class I want to store some function pointers to member functions of the same class in one map storing std::function objects. But I fail right at the beginning with this code:

class Foo {
    public:
        void doSomething() {}
        void bindFunction() {
            // ERROR
            std::function<void(void)> f = &Foo::doSomething;
        }
};

I receive error C2064: term does not evaluate to a function taking 0 arguments in xxcallobj combined with some weird template instantiation errors. Currently I am working on Windows 8 with Visual Studio 2010/2011 and on Win 7 with VS10 it fails too. The error must be based on some weird C++ rules i do not follow.

EDIT: I do NOT use boost. This is C++11 integrated in the MS compiler.

Answer 1

If you need to store a member function without the class instance, you can do something like this:

class MyClass
{
public:
    void MemberFunc(int value)
    {
      //do something
    }
};

// Store member function binding
auto callable = std::mem_fn(&MyClass::MemberFunc);

// Call with late supplied 'this'
MyClass myInst;
callable(&myInst, 123);

What would the storage type look like without auto? Something like this:

std::_Mem_fn_wrap<void,void (__cdecl TestA::*)(int),TestA,int> callable

You can also pass this function storage to a standard function binding

std::function<void(int)> binding = std::bind(callable, &testA, std::placeholders::_1);
binding(123); // Call

Past and future notes: An older interface std::mem_func existed, but has since been deprecated. A proposal exists, post C++17, to make pointer to member functions callable. This would be most welcome.

Answer 2

A non-static member function must be called with an object. That is, it always implicitly passes "this" pointer as its argument.

Because your std::function signature specifies that your function doesn't take any arguments (<void(void)>), you must bind the first (and the only) argument.

std::function<void(void)> f = std::bind(&Foo::doSomething, this);

If you want to bind a function with parameters, you need to specify placeholders:

using namespace std::placeholders;
std::function<void(int,int)> f = std::bind(&Foo::doSomethingArgs, this, _1, _2);

Or, if your compiler supports C++11 lambdas:

std::function<void(int,int)> f = [=](int a, int b) {
    this->doSomethingArgs(a, b);
}

(I don't have a C++11 capable compiler at hand right now, so I can't check this one.)

Answer 3

Either you need

std::function<void(Foo*)> f = &Foo::doSomething;

so that you can call it on any instance, or you need to bind a specific instance, for example this

std::function<void(void)> f = std::bind(&Foo::doSomething, this);