std::pointer_traits

 

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Defined in header <memory>
template< class Ptr > struct pointer_traits;	(1)	(since C++11)
template< class T > struct pointer_traits<T*>;	(2)	(since C++11)

The pointer_traits class template provides the standardized way to access certain properties of pointer-like types (fancy pointers, such as boost::interprocess::offset_ptr). The standard template std::allocator_traits relies on pointer_traits to determine the defaults for various typedefs required by Allocator.

1) The non-specialized pointer_traits declares the following types:

Member types

Type	Definition
pointer	Ptr
element_type	Ptr::element_type if present. Otherwise T if Ptr is a template instantiation Template<T, Args...>
difference_type	Ptr::difference_type if present, otherwise std::ptrdiff_t

Member alias templates

Template	Definition
template <class U> using rebind	Ptr::rebind<U> if exists, otherwise Template<U, Args...> if Ptr is a template instantiation Template<T, Args...>

Member functions

pointer_to [static]

obtains a dereferenceable pointer to its argument (public static member function)

2) A specialization is provided for pointer types, T*, which declares the following types

Member types

Type	Definition
pointer	T*
element_type	T
difference_type	std::ptrdiff_t

Member alias templates

Template	Definition
template< class U > using rebind	U*

Member functions

pointer_to [static]

obtains a dereferenceable pointer to its argument (public static member function)

3) A specialization for user-defined fancy pointer types may define an additional static member function

Optional Member functions

to_address [static] (C++20)

obtains a raw pointer from a fancy pointer (inverse of pointer_to) (public static member function)

Notes

The rebind member template alias makes it possible, given a pointer-like type that points to T, to obtain the same pointer-like type that points to U. For example,

using another_pointer = std::pointer_traits<std::shared_ptr<int>>::rebind<double>;
static_assert(std::is_same<another_pointer, std::shared_ptr<double>>::value);

Example

Run this code

#include <memory>
#include <iostream>
 
template <class Ptr>
struct BlockList
{
   // Predefine a memory block 
   struct block;
 
   // Define a pointer to a memory block from the kind of pointer Ptr s
   // If Ptr is any kind of T*, block_ptr_t is block*
   // If Ptr is smart_ptr<T>, block_ptr_t is smart_ptr<block>
   using block_ptr_t = typename std::pointer_traits<Ptr>::template rebind<block>;
 
   struct block
   {
      std::size_t size;
      block_ptr_t next_block;
   }; 
 
   block_ptr_t free_blocks;
}; 
 
int main()
{
    BlockList<int*> bl1;
    // The type of bl1.free_blocks is block*
 
    BlockList<std::shared_ptr<char>> bl2;
    // The type of bl2.free_blocks is std::shared_ptr<block>
    std::cout << bl2.free_blocks.use_count() << '\n';
}

Output:

​0​

See also

allocator_traits (C++11)	provides information about allocator types (class template)
addressof (C++11)	obtains actual address of an object, even if the & operator is overloaded (function template)