Reflection Support by Means of Template Metaprogramming

Abstract. The C++ language has only a limited runtime type information system, which doesn’t provide full reflection capabilities. We present a general mechanism to support reflection, exploiting template metaprogramming techniques. Two solutions are presented: a static one where metaclass information is only available at compile time to produce class specific code; and a dynamic one where metaclass objects exist at runtime. As a case study of technique we show how to build an object interface to relational database tables. By just annotating a class definition with meta information, such as storage attributes or index properties of fields, a programmer can define objects that can be stored, fetched or searched in a database table. This approach has been used in building a high-performance, full text search engine.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2001
• Where: GCSE
• Authors: Giuseppe Attardi, Antonio Cisternino
• Keywords: Database Table, GCSE 2001, Runtime Type Information, Software Engineering, Template Metaprogramming Techniques