Abstract reflection of a native C++ data type. More...

#include <Serialization.h>

Classes
class	NativeDataTypeRegistry
	Registrator for native data types. More...

Public Member Functions
	DataType ()
	Default constructor (as "invalid" DataType). More...

size_t	size () const
	Returns native memory size of the respective C++ object or variable.

bool	isValid () const
	Check if this is a valid DataType object. More...

bool	isPointer () const
	Whether this is reflecting a C/C++ pointer type. More...

bool	isClass () const
	Whether this is reflecting a C/C++ `struct` or `class` type. More...

bool	isPrimitive () const
	Whether this is reflecting a fundamental C/C++ data type. More...

bool	isString () const
	Whether this is a C++ `String` data type. More...

bool	isInteger () const
	Whether this is an integer C/C++ data type. More...

bool	isReal () const
	Whether this is a floating point based C/C++ data type. More...

bool	isBool () const
	Whether this is a boolean C/C++ data type. More...

bool	isEnum () const
	Whether this is a C/C++ `enum` data type. More...

bool	isArray () const
	Whether this is a C++ `Array<>` object type. More...

bool	isSet () const
	Whether this is a C++ `Set<>` object type. More...

bool	isMap () const
	Whether this is a C++ `Map<>` object type. More...

bool	isSigned () const
	Whether this is a signed integer C/C++ data type. More...

	operator bool () const
	Same as calling isValid().

bool	operator== (const DataType &other) const
	Comparison for equalness. More...

bool	operator!= (const DataType &other) const
	Comparison for inequalness. More...

bool	operator< (const DataType &other) const
	Smaller than comparison. More...

bool	operator> (const DataType &other) const
	Greater than comparison. More...

String	asLongDescr () const
	Human readable long description for this data type. More...

String	baseTypeName () const
	The base type name of this data type. More...

String	customTypeName (bool demangle=false) const
	The 1st user defined C/C++ data type name of this data type. More...

String	customTypeName2 (bool demangle=false) const
	The 2nd user defined C/C++ data type name of this data type. More...

Static Public Member Functions
template<typename T >
static DataType	dataTypeOf (const T &data, bool registerType=true)
	Construct a DataType object for the given native C++ data. More...

template<typename T >
static DataType	dataType (bool registerType=true)
	Construct a DataType object for the given native C++ type. More...

template<typename T >
static size_t	sizeOf (const T &data)
	True size of passed native data in bytes. More...

template<typename T >
static void	registerNativeDataType ()
	Manual registration of native C++ data types. More...

Protected Member Functions
	DataType (bool isPointer, int size, String baseType, String customType1="", String customType2="")
	Constructs a valid DataType object. More...

String	internalID () const
	Unique key for native data type, for internal purposes only. More...

Object	newInstance (Archive *archive) const
	Allocate and initialize a native instance of data type. More...

Static Protected Member Functions
template<typename T , typename std::enable_if< std::is_default_constructible< T >::value, bool >::type = true>
static void	registerNativeDataType (const DataType &type, const T &nativeData)

template<typename T , typename std::enable_if<!std::is_default_constructible< T >::value, bool >::type = true>
static void	registerNativeDataType (const DataType &type, const T &nativeData)

template<typename T >
static String	rawCppTypeName ()

template<typename T >
static String	rawCppTypeNameOf (const T *const &data)

template<typename T >
static String	rawCppTypeNameOf (const T &data)

Detailed Description

Abstract reflection of a native C++ data type.

Provides detailed information about a serialized C++ data type, whether it is a fundamental C/C++ data type (like int, float, char, etc.) or custom defined data types like a C++ class, C/C++ struct, enum, as well as other features of the respective data type like its native memory size and more.

All informations provided by this class are retrieved from the respective individual C++ objects, their members and other data when they are serialized, and all those information are stored with the serialized archive and its resulting data stream. Due to the availability of these extensive data type information within serialized archives, this framework is capable to use them in order to adapt its deserialization process upon subsequent changes to your individual C++ classes.

Definition at line 457 of file Serialization.h.

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

◆ DataType() [1/2]

Serialization::DataType::DataType ( )

Default constructor (as "invalid" DataType).

Initializes a DataType object as being an "invalid" DataType object. Thus calling isValid(), after creating a DataType object with this constructor, would return false.

To create a valid and meaningful DataType object instead, call the static function DataType::dataTypeOf() instead.

Definition at line 95 of file Serialization.cpp.

◆ DataType() [2/2]

Serialization::DataType::DataType	(	bool	isPointer,
		int	size,
		String	baseType,
		String	customType1 = `""`,
		String	customType2 = `""`
	)

protected

Constructs a valid DataType object.

Initializes this object as "valid" DataType object, with specific and useful data type information.

This is a protected constructor which should not be called directly by applications, as its argument list is somewhat implementation specific and might change at any time. Applications should call the static function DataType::dataTypeOf() instead.

Parameters

isPointer	- whether pointer type (i.e. a simple memory address)
size	- native size of data type in bytes (i.e. according to `sizeof()` C/C++ keyword)
baseType	- this framework's internal name for specifying the base type in a coarse way, which must be either one of: "int8", "uint8", "int16", "uint16", "int32", "uint32", "int64", "uint64", "bool", "real32", "real64", "String", "Array", "Set", "enum", "union" or "class"
customType1	- this is only used for base types "enum", "union", "class", "Array", "Set" or "Map", in which case this identifies the user defined type name (e.g. "Foo" for `class` `Foo` or e.g. "Bar" for `Array<Bar>` respectively), for all other types this is empty
customType2	- this is only used for `Map<>` objects in which case it identifies the map's value type (i.e. 2nd template parameter of map)

Definition at line 127 of file Serialization.cpp.

References isPointer(), and size().

Member Function Documentation

◆ asLongDescr()

String Serialization::DataType::asLongDescr ( ) const

Human readable long description for this data type.

Returns a human readable long description for this data type, designed for the purpose for being displayed to the user. Note that the implementation for this method and thus the precise textual strings returned by this method, may change at any time. So you should not rely on precise strings for certain data types, and you should not use the return values of this method for comparing data types with each other.

This class implements various comparison operators, so you should use them for comparing DataTypes objects instead.

See also: baseTypeName(), customTypeName()

Definition at line 465 of file Serialization.cpp.

References customTypeName(), customTypeName2(), and isPointer().

Referenced by newInstance().

◆ baseTypeName()

String Serialization::DataType::baseTypeName ( ) const

The base type name of this data type.

Returns a textual short string identifying the basic type of name of this data type. For example for a 32 bit signed integer data type this method would return "int32". For all user defined C/C++ enum types this method would return "enum". For all user defined C/C++ struct and class types this method would return "class" for both. Note that the precise user defined type name (of i.e. enum, struct and class types) is not included in the string returned by this method, use customTypeName() to retrieve that information instead.

The precise textual strings returned by this method are guaranteed to retain equal with future versions of this framework. So you can rely on them for using the return values of this method for comparison tasks in your application. Note however that this class also implements various comparison operators.

Further it is important to know that this method returns the same string for pointers and non-pointers of the same underlying data type. So in the following example:

#include <stdint.h>
uint64_t i;
uint64_t* pi;

this method would return for both i and pi the string "uint64" !

See also: isPointer(), customTypeName(), customTypeName2()

Definition at line 505 of file Serialization.cpp.

◆ customTypeName()

String Serialization::DataType::customTypeName ( bool demangle = false ) const

The 1st user defined C/C++ data type name of this data type.

Call this method on user defined C/C++ data types like enum, struct, class or Array<> types to retrieve the user defined type name portion of those data types. Note that this method is only intended for such user defined data types. For all fundamental, primitive data types (like i.e. int) this method returns an empty string instead.

This method takes an optional boolean argument demangle, which allows you define whether you are interested in the raw C++ type name or rather the demangled custom type name. By default this method returns the raw C++ type name. The raw C++ type name is the one that is actually used in the compiled binaries and should be preferred for comparions tasks. The demangled C++ type name is a human readable representation of the type name instead, which you may use for displaying the user defined type name portion to the user, however you should not use the demangled representation for comparison tasks.

Note that in the following example:

struct Foo {
    int  a;
    bool b;
};
Foo foo;
Foo* pFoo;

this method would return the same string for both foo and pFoo ! In the latter example customTypeName(true) would return for both foo and pFoo the string "Foo" as return value of this method.

Windows: please note that the current implementation of this method on Windows is not thread safe!

See also: baseTypeName(), customTypeName2(), isPointer()

Definition at line 568 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by asLongDescr().

◆ customTypeName2()

String Serialization::DataType::customTypeName2 ( bool demangle = false ) const

The 2nd user defined C/C++ data type name of this data type.

This is currently only used for Map<> data types in which case this method returns the map's value type (i.e. map's 2nd template parameter).

See also: baseTypeName(), customTypeName()

Definition at line 580 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by asLongDescr().

◆ dataType()

template<typename T >

static DataType Serialization::DataType::dataType ( bool registerType = true )

inlinestatic

Construct a DataType object for the given native C++ type.

This methods basically behaves similar to above's method, whith the difference that above's method takes an argument to real native data and resolves its run-time type information (RTTI), whereas this version here just takes a compile-time constant template argument.

Parameters

registerType - wether type information shall be registered (default: yes)

Returns: corresponding DataType object for the supplied C/C++ type

See also: dataTypeOf() for run-time variant data types; registerNativeDataType() for registration of type information

Definition at line 522 of file Serialization.h.

References registerNativeDataType().

◆ dataTypeOf()

template<typename T >

static DataType Serialization::DataType::dataTypeOf	(	const T &	data,
		bool	registerType = `true`
	)

inlinestatic

Construct a DataType object for the given native C++ data.

Use this function to create corresponding DataType objects for native C/C++ objects, members and variables. Run-time type information (RTTI) is used to resolve its type information.

Parameters

data	- native C/C++ object/member/variable a DataType object shall be created for
registerType	- wether type information shall be registered (default: yes)

Returns: corresponding DataType object for the supplied native C/C++ object/member/variable

See also: dataType() for compile-time known data types; registerNativeDataType() for registration of type information

Definition at line 501 of file Serialization.h.

References registerNativeDataType().

Referenced by registerNativeDataType(), Serialization::Archive::serializeAnonymousObject(), Serialization::Archive::serializeHeapMember(), Serialization::Archive::serializeMember(), Serialization::Archive::setMinVersion(), Serialization::Archive::setVersion(), and sizeOf().

◆ internalID()

String Serialization::DataType::internalID ( ) const

protected

Unique key for native data type, for internal purposes only.

This is more or less just a random string acting as a key for the native data type. The way this string is assembled may change at any time in future, so it is only constant for the data type during current runtime.

The generated key is used to store lambdas for each data type, e.g. for allocation and initialization of the actual native data type via the reflection API.

See also: newInstance()

Definition at line 396 of file Serialization.cpp.

References isClass().

Referenced by newInstance(), registerNativeDataType(), and sizeOf().

◆ isArray()

bool Serialization::DataType::isArray ( ) const

Whether this is a C++ Array<> object type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a C++ Array<> container object type.

Note: : This framework handles Array<> types neither as primitive types, nor as class types. So isPrimitive() and isClass() both return false for arrays.

See also: isPointer()

Definition at line 304 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by isPrimitive().

◆ isBool()

bool Serialization::DataType::isBool ( ) const

Whether this is a boolean C/C++ data type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a (fundamental, primitive) boolean data type. So this is the case for the C++ bool data type. It does not include integer or floating point types though.

Note that this method also returns true on bool pointer types!

See also: isPointer()

Definition at line 273 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by Serialization::Archive::setAutoValue().

◆ isClass()

bool Serialization::DataType::isClass ( ) const

Whether this is reflecting a C/C++ struct or class type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a C/C++ struct or class type.

Note: : Data types which enjoy out of the box serialization support by this framework, like String and Array<> are NOT handled as class data types by this framwork. So isClass() returns false for e.g. String and any Array<> based data type.

Note that in the following example:

struct Foo {
    int  a;
    bool b;
};
Foo foo;
Foo* pFoo;

the DataType objects of both foo, as well as of the C/C++ pointer pFoo would both return true for isClass() here!

See also: isPointer()

Definition at line 185 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by internalID(), isPrimitive(), and operator==().

◆ isEnum()

bool Serialization::DataType::isEnum ( ) const

Whether this is a C/C++ enum data type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a user defined enumeration data type. So this is the case for all C/C++ enum data types. It does not include integer (or even floating point) types though.

Note that this method also returns true on enum pointer types!

See also: isPointer()

Definition at line 288 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by Serialization::Archive::setAutoValue().

◆ isInteger()

bool Serialization::DataType::isInteger ( ) const

Whether this is an integer C/C++ data type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a (fundamental, primitive) integer data type. So these are all int and unsigned int types of any size. It does not include floating point ("real") types though.

You may use isSigned() to further check whether this data type allows negative numbers.

Note that this method also returns true on integer pointer types!

See also: isPointer()

Definition at line 241 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by Serialization::Archive::setAutoValue().

◆ isMap()

bool Serialization::DataType::isMap ( ) const

Whether this is a C++ Map<> object type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is an associative sorted C++ Map<> container object type.

Note: : This framework handles Map<> types neither as primitive types, nor as class types. So isPrimitive() and isClass() both return false for maps.

See also: isPointer()

Definition at line 336 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by isPrimitive().

◆ isPointer()

bool Serialization::DataType::isPointer ( ) const

Whether this is reflecting a C/C++ pointer type.

Returns @true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a C/C++ pointer type.

Definition at line 156 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by asLongDescr(), and DataType().

◆ isPrimitive()

bool Serialization::DataType::isPrimitive ( ) const

Whether this is reflecting a fundamental C/C++ data type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a primitive, fundamental C/C++ data type. Those are fundamental data types which are already predefined by the C/C++ language, for example: char, int, float, double, bool, but also String objects and any pointer types like int*, double**, but including pointers to user defined types like:

struct Foo {
    int  a;
    bool b;
};
Foo* pFoo;

So the DataType object of pFoo in the latter example would also return true for isPrimitive() here!

See also: isPointer()

Definition at line 209 of file Serialization.cpp.

References isArray(), isClass(), isMap(), and isSet().

◆ isReal()

bool Serialization::DataType::isReal ( ) const

Whether this is a floating point based C/C++ data type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a (fundamental, primitive) floating point based data type. So these are currently the C/C++ float and double types. It does not include integer types though.

Note that this method also returns true on float pointer and double pointer types!

See also: isPointer()

Definition at line 258 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by isSigned(), and Serialization::Archive::setAutoValue().

◆ isSet()

bool Serialization::DataType::isSet ( ) const

Whether this is a C++ Set<> object type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a C++ Set<> unique container object type.

Note: : This framework handles Set<> types neither as primitive types, nor as class types. So isPrimitive() and isClass() both return false for sets.

See also: isPointer()

Definition at line 320 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by isPrimitive().

◆ isSigned()

bool Serialization::DataType::isSigned ( ) const

Whether this is a signed integer C/C++ data type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a (fundamental, primitive) signed integer data type. This is the case for are all unsigned int C/C++ types of any size. For all floating point ("real") based types this method returns false though!

Note that this method also returns true on signed integer pointer types!

See also: isInteger();

Definition at line 353 of file Serialization.cpp.

References isReal().

Referenced by Serialization::Archive::setIntValue().

◆ isString()

bool Serialization::DataType::isString ( ) const

Whether this is a C++ String data type.

Returns true if the respective native C/C++ object, member or variable (this DataType instance is reflecting) is a C++ String object (a.k.a. std::string from the C++ STL).

Note that this framework handles String objects as if they were a fundamental, primitive C/C++ data type, so isPrimitive() returns true for strings.

Definition at line 223 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by Serialization::Archive::setAutoValue().

◆ isValid()

bool Serialization::DataType::isValid ( ) const

Check if this is a valid DataType object.

Returns true if this DataType object is reflecting a valid data type. The default constructor creates DataType objects initialized to be "invalid" DataType objects by default. That way one can detect whether a DataType object was ever assigned to something meaningful.

Note that this class also implements the bool operator, both return the same boolean result.

Definition at line 147 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by operator bool().

◆ newInstance()

Object Serialization::DataType::newInstance ( Archive * archive ) const

protected

Allocate and initialize a native instance of data type.

This is basically like calling the C++ new operator for the native data type, though by calling this reflection API instead. Thus memory for one instance of the data type is allocated on the heap and initialized by data types's default constructor.

Consequently this method can only be called for native data types that do have a default constructor. For data types that do not have a default constructor, calling this method will cause an assertion fault.

Returns: new Object reflecting the newly allocated native data instance

Definition at line 598 of file Serialization.cpp.

References asLongDescr(), and internalID().

◆ operator!=()

bool Serialization::DataType::operator!= ( const DataType & other ) const

Comparison for inequalness.

Returns the inverse result of what DataType::operator==() would return. So refer to the latter for more details.

Definition at line 409 of file Serialization.cpp.

References operator==().

◆ operator<()

bool Serialization::DataType::operator< ( const DataType & other ) const

Smaller than comparison.

Returns true if this DataType object can be consider to be "smaller" than the other DataType object being compared with. This operator is actually quite arbitrarily implemented and may change at any time, and thus result for the same data types may change in future at any time.

This operator is basically implemented for allowing this DataType class to be used with various standard template library (STL) classes, which require sorting operators to be implemented.

Definition at line 424 of file Serialization.cpp.

Referenced by operator>().

◆ operator==()

bool Serialization::DataType::operator== ( const DataType & other ) const

Comparison for equalness.

Returns true if the two DataType objects being compared can be considered to be "equal" C/C++ data types. They are considered to be equal if their underlying C/C++ data types are exactly identical. For example comparing int and unsigned int data types are considere to be not equal, since they are differently signed. Furthermore short int and long int would also not be considered to be equal, since they do have a different memory size. Additionally pointer type characteristic is compared as well. So a double type and double* type are also considered to be not equal data types and hence this method would return false.

As an exception here, classes and structs with the same class/struct name but different sizes are also considered to be "equal". This relaxed requirement is necessary to retain backward compatibility to older versions of the same native C++ classes/structs.

Definition at line 376 of file Serialization.cpp.

References isClass().

Referenced by operator!=(), and operator>().

◆ operator>()

bool Serialization::DataType::operator> ( const DataType & other ) const

Greater than comparison.

Returns true if this DataType object can be consider to be "greater" than the other DataType object being compared with. This operator is actually quite arbitrarily implemented and may change at any time, and thus result for the same data types may change in future at any time.

This operator is basically implemented for allowing this DataType class to be used with various standard template library (STL) classes, which require sorting operators to be implemented.

Definition at line 447 of file Serialization.cpp.

References operator<(), and operator==().

◆ registerNativeDataType()

template<typename T >

void Serialization::DataType::registerNativeDataType

static

Manual registration of native C++ data types.

This method allows applications to explicitly register native C/C++ data types to this framework, for the purpose to allow creating new instances of those data types by this framework's reflection API at runtime.

@discussion Mostly it is not necessary to manually register native C/C++ data types, as this framework automatically collects required information about applications' data types at compile-time. There are rare cases though where an application needs to register some native data types explicitly to this Serialization framework by either calling DataType::registerNativeType() or by using class NativeDataTypeRegistry, before doing any (de)serialization.

For instance: if the application serializes only base class pointers and all of the sudden some of these pointers point to objects of derived classes AND this framework did not get into touch with those derived class(es) elsewhere, in this example the deriving classe(s) either might need to be registered manually, or some member variable of that derived type needs to be serialized somewhere for this framework to gather the required type information at compile time instead.

Example:

void appsInitCode() {
   Serialization::DataType::registerNativeType<MyType>();
}

See also: NativeDataTypeRegistry for registration at global C++ declaration space

Definition at line 2020 of file Serialization.h.

References dataTypeOf(), internalID(), and Serialization::Archive::objectByUID().

Referenced by dataType(), and dataTypeOf().

◆ sizeOf()

template<typename T >

static size_t Serialization::DataType::sizeOf ( const T & data )

inlinestatic

True size of passed native data in bytes.

In most cases the result is equal to C++ sizeof(data). However for polymomorphic objects being referenced as (some) base pointer, the C++ sizeof(data) operator would potentially return a value that's smaller than the actual size of the referenced object. In such kind of scenarios this method instead returns the correct, actual (larger) size of the referenced object.

Definition at line 540 of file Serialization.h.

References dataTypeOf(), and internalID().

The documentation for this class was generated from the following files:

Classes

Public Member Functions

Static Public Member Functions

Protected Member Functions

Static Protected Member Functions

Detailed Description

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

◆ DataType() [1/2]

◆ DataType() [2/2]

Member Function Documentation

◆ asLongDescr()

◆ baseTypeName()

◆ customTypeName()

◆ customTypeName2()

◆ dataType()

◆ dataTypeOf()

◆ internalID()

◆ isArray()

◆ isBool()

◆ isClass()

◆ isEnum()

◆ isInteger()

◆ isMap()

◆ isPointer()

◆ isPrimitive()

◆ isReal()

◆ isSet()

◆ isSigned()

◆ isString()

◆ isValid()

◆ newInstance()

◆ operator!=()

◆ operator<()

◆ operator==()

◆ operator>()

◆ registerNativeDataType()

◆ sizeOf()