Boost C++ Libraries

The template boost::factory lets you encapsulate a new expression as a function object, boost::value_factory encapsulates a constructor invocation without new.

boost::factory<T*>()(arg1,arg2,arg3)
// same as new T(arg1,arg2,arg3)

boost::value_factory<T>()(arg1,arg2,arg3)
// same as T(arg1,arg2,arg3)

Before C++11 the arguments to the function objects have to be LValues. A factory that also accepts RValues can be composed using the boost::forward_adapter or boost::bind. In C++11 or higher the arguments can be LValues or RValues.

In traditional Object Oriented Programming a Factory is an object implementing an interface of one or more methods that construct objects conforming to known interfaces.

// assuming a_concrete_class and another_concrete_class are derived
// from an_abstract_class

struct a_factory {
    virtual an_abstract_class* create() const = 0;
    virtual ~a_factory() { }
};

struct a_concrete_factory
    : a_factory {
    an_abstract_class* create() const {
        return new a_concrete_class();
    }
};

struct another_concrete_factory
    : a_factory {
    an_abstract_class* create() const {
        return new another_concrete_class();
    }
};

// [...]

int main()
{
    boost::ptr_map<std::string, a_factory> factories;

    // [...]

    factories.insert("a_name",
        std::unique_ptr<a_factory>(new a_concrete_factory));
    factories.insert("another_name",
        std::unique_ptr<a_factory>(new another_concrete_factory));

    // [...]

    std::unique_ptr<an_abstract_class> x(factories.at(some_name).create());

    // [...]
}

This approach has several drawbacks. The most obvious one is that there is lots of boilerplate code. In other words there is too much code to express a rather simple intention. We could use templates to get rid of some of it but the approach remains inflexible:

Experience has shown that using function objects and generic Boost components for their composition, Design Patterns that describe callback mechanisms (typically requiring a high percentage of boilerplate code with pure Object Oriented methodology) become implementable with just few code lines and without extra classes.

Factories are callback mechanisms for constructors, so we provide two class templates, boost::value_factory and boost::factory, that encapsulate object construction via direct application of the constructor and the new operator, respectively.

We let the function objects forward their arguments to the construction expressions they encapsulate. Over this boost::factory optionally allows the use of smart pointers and Allocators.

Compile-time polymorphism can be used where appropriate,

template<class T>
void do_something()
{
    // [...]
    T x = T(a, b);

    // for conceptually similar objects x we neither need virtual
    // functions nor a common base class in this context.
    // [...]
}

Now, to allow inhomogeneous signatures for the constructors of the types passed in for T we can use value_factory and boost::bind to normalize between them.

template<class ValueFactory>
void do_something(ValueFactory make_obj = ValueFactory())
{
    // [...]
    typename ValueFactory::result_type x = make_obj(a, b);

    // for conceptually similar objects x we neither need virtual
    // functions nor a common base class in this context.
    // [...]
}

int main()
{
    // [...]

    do_something(boost::value_factory<X>());
    do_something(boost::bind(boost::value_factory<Y>(), _1, 5, _2));
    // construct X(a, b) and Y(a, 5, b), respectively.

    // [...]
}

Maybe we want our objects to outlive the function's scope, in this case we have to use dynamic allocation;

template<class Factory>
whatever do_something(Factory new_obj = Factory())
{
    typename Factory::result_type ptr = new_obj(a, b);

    // again, no common base class or virtual functions needed,
    // we could enforce a polymorphic base by writing e.g.
    //     boost::shared_ptr<base>
    // instead of
    //     typename Factory::result_type
    // above.
    // Note that we are also free to have the type erasure happen
    // somewhere else (e.g. in the constructor of this function's
    // result type).

    // [...]
}

// [... call do_something like above but with boost::factory instead
// of boost::value_factory]

Although we might have created polymorphic objects in the previous example, we have used compile time polymorphism for the factory. If we want to erase the type of the factory and thus allow polymorphism at run time, we can use Boost.Function to do so. The first example can be rewritten as follows.

typedef boost::function<an_abstract_class*()> a_factory;

// [...]

int main()
{
    std::map<std::string, a_factory> factories;

    // [...]

    factories["a_name"] = boost::factory<a_concrete_class*>();
    factories["another_name"] = boost::factory<another_concrete_class*>();

    // [...]
}

Of course we can just as easy create factories that take arguments and/or return Smart Pointers.

Boost 1.72.0

Glen Fernandes rewrote the implementations of factory and value_factory to provide the following features:

The following features have been removed:

Boost 1.58.0

In order to remove the dependency on Boost.Optional, the default parameter for allocators has been changed from boost::none_t to void. If you have code that has stopped working because it uses boost::none_t, a quick fix is to define BOOST_FUNCTIONAL_FACTORY_SUPPORT_NONE_T, which will restore support, but this will be removed in a future release. It should be be relatively easy to fix this properly.

Tobias Schwinger for creating this library.

Eric Niebler requested a function to invoke a type's constructor (with the arguments supplied as a Tuple) as a Fusion feature. These Factory utilities are a factored-out generalization of this idea.

Dave Abrahams suggested Smart Pointer support for exception safety, providing useful hints for the implementation.

Joel de Guzman's documentation style was copied from Fusion.

Peter Dimov for sharing his insights on language details and their evolution.