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C++20 STL Cookbook

Use Structured Binding to Return Multiple Values

Explore the use of structured binding in C++20 to return and unpack multiple values from tuple-like objects, pairs, arrays, and structs. Learn how this feature enhances code readability and maintains type safety while allowing manipulation through references.

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Structured bindingStructured binding is a C++ feature that enables the unpacking of tuple-like objects into individual variables by using a single statement. makes it easy to unpack the values of a structure into separate variables, improving the readability of our code.

With structured binding we can directly assign the member values to variables like this:

things_pair<int,int> { 47, 9 };
auto [this, that] = things_pair;
cout << format("{} {}\n", this, that);

Output:

47 9

How to do it

  • Structured binding works with pair, tuple, array, and struct. Beginning with C++20, this includes bit-fields. This example uses a C-array:

int nums[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
auto [ a, b, c, d, e ] = nums;
cout << format("{} {} {} {} {}\n", a, b, c, d, e);
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