Does C++ have “with” keyword like Pascal?

Question

with keyword in Pascal can be use to quick access the field of a record. Anybody knows if C++ has anything similar to that?

Ex: I have a pointer with m

Answer 1

Having written numerous parsers, this seems like a dead simple list look up for the named object, either static or dynamic. Further, I have never seen a situation where the compiler did not correctly identify the missing object and type, so all those lame excuses for not allowing a WITH ...ENDWITH construction would seem to be a lot of hooey. For the rest of us prone to long object names one workaround is to create simple defines. Couldn't resist, suppose I have:

    #include<something> 
    typedef int headache;
    class grits{
      public:
       void corn(void);
       void cattle(void);
       void hay(void);}; //insert function defs here
     void grits::grits(void)(printf("Welcome to Farm-o-mania 2012\n");};

    #define m mylittlepiggy_from_under_the_backporch.
    headache main(){
       grits mylittlepiggy_from_under_the_backporch;
         m corn();  //works in GCC
         m cattle();
         m hay();
      return headache;

Answer 2

A simple way to do this is as follows

class MyClass
{
    int& m_x;

    public MyClass(int& x)
    {
        m_x = x;
        m_x++;
    }

    ~MyClass()
    {
        m_x--;
    }
}
int main():
{
    x = 0;
    {
        MyClass(x)  // x == 1 whilst in this scope
    }
}

I've been writing python all day long and just scrapped this down before anyone takes me to the cleaners. In a larger program this is an example of how to keep a reliable count for something.

Answer 3

no there is no such keyword.

Answer 4

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

template <typename T>
struct with_iter {
  with_iter( T &val ) : p(&val) {}

  inline T* begin() { return p; }
  inline T* end() { return p+1; }

  T *p;
};

#define with( N, I ) for( auto &N : with_iter<decltype(I)>(I) )

int main() {

  with( out , cout ) {
    out << "Hello world!" << endl;
  }

  return 0;
}

Nuf said ...

Answer 5

Even though I program mostly in Delphi which has a with keyword (since Delphi is a Pascal derivative), I don't use with. As others have said: it saves a bit on typing, but reading is made harder.

In a case like the code below it might be tempting to use with:

cxGrid.DBTableView.ViewData.Records.FieldByName('foo').Value = 1;
cxGrid.DBTableView.ViewData.Records.FieldByName('bar').Value = 2;
cxGrid.DBTableView.ViewData.Records.FieldByName('baz').Value = 3;

Using with this looks like this

with cxGrid.DBTableView.ViewData.Records do
begin
  FieldByName('foo').Value = 1;
  FieldByName('bar').Value = 2;
  FieldByName('baz').Value = 3;
end;

I prefer to use a different technique by introducing an extra variable pointing to the same thing with would be pointing to. Like this:

var lRecords: TDataSet;

lRecords := cxGrid.DBTableView.ViewData.Records;

lRecords.FieldByName('foo').Value = 1;
lRecords.FieldByName('bar').Value = 2;
lRecords.FieldByName('baz').Value = 3;

This way there is no ambiguity, you save a bit on typing and the intent of the code is clearer than using with

Answer 6

In C++, you can put code in a method of the class being reference by pointer. There you can directly reference the members without using the pointer. Make it inline and you pretty much get what you want.