Advantages of Concepts

Get familiar with the advantages of the concepts.

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More generally, what are the advantages of concepts?

Advantages

  • Requirements for template parameters are part of the interface.

  • The overloading of functions and specialization of class templates can be based on concepts.

  • Concepts can be used for function templates, class templates, and generic member functions of classes or class templates.

  • You get improved error messages because the compiler compares the requirements of the template parameters with the given template arguments.

  • You can use predefined concepts or define your own.

  • The usage of auto and concepts is unified. Instead of auto, you can use a concept.

  • If a function declaration uses a concept, it automatically becomes a function template. Writing function templates is, therefore, as easy as writing a function.

The long, long history

The first time I heard about concepts was around 2005 - 2006. They reminded me of Haskell type classes. Type classes in Haskell are interfaces for similar types. Here is a part of Haskell’s type classes hierarchy:

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