Using late-binding with STL classes

[Xx r3negade]

I have a function, which reads input from a file and appends each line of the file to an STL object. I want to use this function with both lists and vectors. Since both of these objects have the push_back method, I thought I'd make a common function that can be used by both. Is there any practical way to do this?

Function show below:

template<class container>
// The second argument here must be a list, vector, or any other STL object with a push_back() method
void fileToContainer(const char* fName, container* vecptr) {
    // Open a file and add each line to the list, vector, etc.
    ifstream f(fName);
    string line;

    if (f.is_open()) {
        while (! f.eof()) {
            getline(f, line);
            if (line != "") {
                try {
                    vecptr.push_back(line);
                }
                catch (...) {
                    throw ios_base::failure("Invalid container object");
                }
            }
        }
    }
    else {
        throw ios_base::failure("Could not open " + static_cast<string>(fName));
    }

[boxfish]

I thought I'd make a common function that can be used by both. Is there any practical way to do this?

Is there something wrong with the function you have there? It seems like you have already done this.

[Xx r3negade]

I get this compile error

error: request for member ‘push_back’ in ‘vecptr’, which is of non-class type ‘std::vector'

Note that "vector" is the type passed to the function, in a different part of the code.

Edit: The function call looks like this:

fileToContainer<vector<string> >(argv[1], &ph.puzGrid);

ph.puzGrid being a vector<string>, of course.

[Xx r3negade]

Any help please? Still not quite sure what to do...

[boxfish]

vecptr.push_back(line);

You can't use the push_back function on vecptr, because it is a pointer to a vector, not an actual vector. You have to dereference it first or use the arrow operator. Try:

vecptr->push_back(line);

Hope this helps.

[Xx r3negade]

*facepalm*
thanks :D