Associative Sequence

Description

An Associative Sequence allows efficient retrieval of elements based on keys. Like associative sequences in MPL, and unlike associative containers in STL, Fusion associative sequences have no implied ordering relation. Instead, type identity is used to impose an equivalence relation on keys. Keys are not checked for uniqueness.

Notation

s: An Associative Sequence
S: An Associative Sequence type
K: An arbitrary key type
o: An arbitrary object
e: A Sequence element

Valid Expressions

For any Associative Sequence the following expressions must be valid:

Expression	Return type	Type Requirements	Runtime Complexity
`has_key<K>(s)`	MPL Boolean Constant. Convertible to bool.		Constant
`at_key<K>(s)`	Any type		Constant
`at_key<K>(s) = o`	Any type	`s` is mutable and `e = o`, where `e` is the first element in the sequence, is a valid expression.	Constant

Result Type Expressions

Expression	Compile Time Complexity
`result_of::has_key<S, K>::type`	Amortized constant time
`result_of::at_key<S, K>::type`	Amortized constant time
`result_of::value_at_key<S, K>::type`	Amortized constant time

	Note
	`result_of::at_key<S, K>` returns the actual type returned by `at_key<K>(s)`. In most cases, this is a reference. Hence, there is no way to know the exact element type using `result_of::at_key<S, K>`.The element at `K` may actually be a reference to begin with. For this purpose, you can use `result_of::value_at_key<S, K>`.

Expression Semantics

Expression	Semantics
`has_key<K>(s)`	A boolean Integral Constant `c` such that `c::value == true` if and only if there is one or more elements with the key `k` in `s`; see `has_key`.
`at_key<K>(s)`	The element associated with the key `K` in the sequence `s`; see `at`.

Models

set
map
filter_view (where adapted sequence is an Associative Sequence and a Forward Sequence)
iterator_range (where adapted iterators are Associative Iterators)
joint_view (where adapted sequences are Associative Sequences and Forward Sequences)
reverse_view (where adapted sequence is an Associative Sequence and a Bidirectional Sequence)