Explanation of std::function

Question

What is the purpose of std::function? As far as I understand, std::function turns a function, functor, or lambda into a function object.

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Answer 1

Using function object is helpful when implementing thread pool. You can keep no of available workers as threads and work to do as queue of function objects. It is easier to keep work to be done as function object than function pointers for example as you can just pass anything thats callable. Each time new function object appear in queue, worker thread can just pop it and execute by calling () operator on it.