Looking for an alternative approach to avoid "clazy-container-anti-pattern" in an if-clause

devjb

I get a warning allocating an unneeded temporary container from a code snippet like this:

		if (QMultiMap<T,U>().keys(someVariableOfTypeU).isEmpty()) {
			[...]
		}

I wonder how I can change the if clause to avoid that unnecessary allocation.

I hope I elaborated enough by providing that pseudo-codish example above.

Thanks in advance

Christian Ehrlicher

use Q(Multi)Map::key()

devjb

Thanks for the reply. However, the documentation for const Key QMap::key(const T &value, const Key &defaultKey = Key()) const states:

Returns the first key with value value, or defaultKey if the map contains no item with value value. If no defaultKey is provided the function returns a default-constructed key.

How am I supposed to distinguish between not found and default key when a default-constructed key might be a valid key in the map?

Christian Ehrlicher

A default-constructed key should not be a valid key :)

devjb

Given that constraint, okay. Can you point to any source that explains, why exactly a default-constructed key should not be a valid key, or why this is considered bad style?

VRonin

There is no optimisation behind QMap::key so you can just do it manually:

auto keyIter = map.constBegin(), iEnd = map.constEnd();
for(;keyIter !=iEnd && keyIter.value() != someVariableOfTypeU;++keyIter){}
if(keyIter ==iEnd){
///[...]
}

SGaist

Hi,

Wouldn't QMap::find get you what you want ?

devjb

Thanks,
QMultiMap::find() searches by key and value, I need to know whether one specific value is somewhere in the map, no matter which key(s) it is associated with.

according to @VRonin's suggestion, I simply iterate through the whole map manually now, just incrementing a counter on ocurrence. This avoids creating an extra container for the task and should not be any slower than QMultiMap::keys().

SGaist

My bad, I misunderstood your search pattern.

From a reading point of view, I would have gone with std::find_if unless you want all the possible key that contains the value.