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<h4>Local Iteration</h4>
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Local iteration is a simple vertical repetition construct.&nbsp;
It expands a macro with each number in a user-specified range.&nbsp;
Each expansion is on a separate line.
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<h4>Tutorial</h4>
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This mechanism requires two pieces of information to operate:&nbsp;
a range to iterate over and a macro to expand on each iteration.&nbsp;
This information is obtained by the mechanism through two <i>named external arguments</i>.&nbsp;
These arguments are specified as user-defined macros named <b>BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS</b> and <b>BOOST_PP_LOCAL_MACRO</b>.
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<b>BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS</b> specifies a range of values to iterate over.&nbsp;
It <i>must</i> expand to a <i>tuple</i> containing two elements--a lower and upper bound.&nbsp;
Both the upper and lower bounds must be numeric values in the range of <i>0</i> to <b>BOOST_PP_LIMIT_ITERATION</b>.&nbsp;
For example, if the user wishes a macro to be expanded with numbers ranging from <i>0</i> to <i>10</i>,
<b>BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS</b> would be defined like this:
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<div class="code"><pre>
#define BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS (0, 10)
</pre></div>
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Note that there is whitespace after the name of the macro.&nbsp;
The macro <i>does not</i> take <i>two</i> arguments.&nbsp;
In the case above, if there was no whitespace, a preprocessing error would occur because <i>0</i> and <i>10</i> are invalid identifiers.
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Both the upper and lower bounds specified in the <b>BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS</b> macro are <i>evaluated parameters</i>.&nbsp;
This implies that they can include simple arithmetic or logical expressions.&nbsp;
For instance, the above definition could easily have been written like this:
</div>
<div class="code"><pre>
#define N() 5
#define BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS (0, N() + 5)
</pre></div>
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Because of this, if the whitespace after the macro name is elided, it is possible for the definition to be syntactically valid:
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<div class="code"><pre>
#define A 0
#define B 10
#define BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS(A, B)
// note: no whitespace ^
</pre></div>
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If this happens, an error will occur inside the mechanism when it attempts to use this macro.&nbsp;
The error messages that result may be obscure, so always remember to include the whitespace.&nbsp;
A <i>correct</i> version of the above looks like this:
</div>
<div class="code"><pre>
#define A 0
#define B 10
#define BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS (A, B)
// note: has whitespace ^
</pre></div>
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<b>BOOST_PP_LOCAL_MACRO</b> is the macro that is expanded by the mechanism.&nbsp;
This macro is expanded on each iteration with the current number of the iteration.&nbsp;
It must defined as a unary macro <i>or</i> result in a macro that can be called with one argument:
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<div class="code"><pre>
#define BOOST_PP_LOCAL_MACRO(n) \
template&lt;&gt; struct sample&lt;n&gt; { }; \
/**/
</pre></div>
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...or...
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<div class="code"><pre>
#define SAMPLE(n) \
template&lt;&gt; struct sample&lt;n&gt; { }; \
/**/
#define BOOST_PP_LOCAL_MACRO SAMPLE
</pre></div>
<div>
Once these two macros are defined, the local iteration is initiated by <i>including</i> <b>BOOST_PP_LOCAL_ITERATE</b>().
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<div class="code"><pre>
??=include BOOST_PP_LOCAL_ITERATE()
</pre></div>
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(The <code>??=</code> token is a trigraph for <code>#</code>.&nbsp;
I use the trigraph to make it clear that I am <i>including</i> a file rather than defining or expanding a macro, but it is not necessary.&nbsp;
Even the digraph version, <code>%:</code>, could be used.&nbsp;
Some compilers do not readily accept trigraphs and digraphs, so keep that in mind.&nbsp;
Other than that, use whichever one you prefer.)
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<div>
In order to repeat the <code>sample</code> specialization, the pieces must be put together....
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<div class="code"><pre>
#define BOOST_PP_LOCAL_MACRO(n) \
template&lt;&gt; struct sample&lt;n&gt; { }; \
/**/
#define BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS (0, 10)
??=include BOOST_PP_LOCAL_ITERATE()
</pre></div>
<div>
This will result in a specialization of <code>sample</code> for each number in the range of <i>0</i> to <i>10</i>.&nbsp;
The output will look something like this:
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<div class="code"><pre>
template&lt;&gt; struct sample&lt;0&gt; { };
template&lt;&gt; struct sample&lt;1&gt; { };
template&lt;&gt; struct sample&lt;2&gt; { };
// ...
template&lt;&gt; struct sample&lt;10&gt; { };
</pre></div>
<div>
After the local-iteration is complete, both <b>BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS</b> and <b>BOOST_PP_LOCAL_MACRO</b> are automatically undefined.&nbsp;
If the values need to be retained for a future local-iteration, they must be defined indirectly:
</div>
<div class="code"><pre>
#define LIMITS (0, 10)
#define SAMPLE(n) \
template&lt;&gt; struct sample&lt;n&gt; { }; \
/**/
#define BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS LIMITS
#define BOOST_PP_LOCAL_MACRO(n) SAMPLE(n)
??=include BOOST_PP_LOCAL_ITERATE()
</pre></div>
<h4>See Also</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="../ref/local_iterate.html">BOOST_PP_LOCAL_ITERATE</a></li>
<li><a href="../ref/local_limits.html">BOOST_PP_LOCAL_LIMITS</a></li>
<li><a href="../ref/local_macro.html">BOOST_PP_LOCAL_MACRO</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="sig">- Paul Mensonides</div>
<hr size="1">
<div style="margin-left: 0px;">
<i>© Copyright <a href="http://www.housemarque.com" target="_top">Housemarque Oy</a> 2002</i>
</br><i>© Copyright Paul Mensonides 2002</i>
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<div style="margin-left: 0px;">
<p><small>Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
accompanying file <a href="../../../../LICENSE_1_0.txt">LICENSE_1_0.txt</a> or
copy at <a href=
"http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)</small></p>
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