Collect data from an object of some other class

There are circumstances, such as report or log entry, where we need to collect data from an object of some other (related or not) class. The C++ language only requires that we instruct the compiler how we intend to do it. This is simply achieved by defining a constructor of recipient_class from const source_class&. We can then use the operator =() (or the constructor) to copy the relevant data into an object that we can print, save or whatever.

class A
{
    //...
};

class B
{
    B(const A& a)
    {
        //...
    }
    // ...
};
// ...

A a;
// update a 
// ...
B b = a; // get a data to b

Actually we can even change the data type in this process: this minimal console application gets a double from a A and sets it's string representation in a B. Paste it into a VC console application project, compile and run.

#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
struct A
{
    int i;
    double d;
    // ...
};
struct B
{
    B(const A& a) : i(a.i) 
    {
        std::wostringstream oss;
        oss << a.d;
        s = oss.str();	
	// ...
    }
    int i;
    std::wstring s;
    // ...
};
int main(int, wchar_t*)
{
    A a = {100, 1.2345};

    B b = a; // the compiler will use b(a) to achieve it

    std::wcout << b.i << L'\t' << b.s << std::endl; // visualize the result

    return 0;
}

With the power of C++ (and the help of some analysis) we should not have to write several thousands such constructors. For instance, change the B constructor to:

template <class T>
B(const T& t) : i(t.i)
{
    std::wostringstream oss;
    oss << t.d;
    s = oss.str();    
}

Now B::operator =() operates on objects of any class presenting a i named member convertible to a int and a d named member accepted by std::basic_ostream::operator <<(). With the added power of the Standard C++ Library (and again the help of some analysis) we can also handle all types and sizes of (for instance) int collections:

#include <vector>
struct BB : B
{
    template<class T>
    BB(const T& t) : BB::B(t), ai(t.ai.begin(), t.ai.end())
    {}

    std::vector<int> ai;
};

A BB is a B with an added std::vector<int> ai member. It is constructible from any class presenting the previous traits and a member standard container of objects convertible to int named ai, for instance from:

#include <array>
template <size_t t_s>
struct AA : A
{
    std::array<int, t_s> ai;
    AA(const A& a) : A(a)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < t_s; ++i)
            ai[i] = i;
    }
    // ...
};

The main() demo becomes then:

int main(int, wchar_t*)
{
    A a = {100, 1.2345};
    B b = a;
    std::wcout << b.i << L'\t' << b.s << std::endl; // same as earlier

    AA<8> aa = a; // a AA having the values of previous A plus an array of eight int
    BB bb = aa; // Collect the aa data into bb

    std::wcout << bb.i << L'\t' << bb.s;
    for (size_t i = 0; i < bb.ai.size(); ++i)
	std::wcout << L'\t' << bb.ai[i];
    std::wcout << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

Definitely no need of the complex constructs that you can find elsewhere (including CodeProject) :) cheers, AR