Defaulted comparison operators

Revision history

N3950 was presented to the Evolution WG at the Rapperswil meeting and the response was very positive.

Changes requested during the meeting and implemented in the updated proposal:

• Non-member operators were unanimously requested
• Mutable members: there was consensus on their treatment. The compromise is to to make explicitly defaulted operators ill-formed when mutable members are present. See "Mutable treatment".
• Short-hand notation was proposed and had very positive feedback. See "The proposed syntax: short form".

Changes that came from the technical review on the c++std-ext list:

• Pointer and enumerated types are handled by the generated (in)equality operators
• Floating point members prevent generation of the explicitly defaulted operators. See "Members of non-integral types" for the discussion and other options.
• Lexicographical comparison is defined explicitly
• The technical specification contains rational and examples now

I. Introduction

Equality for composite types is an age-old problem which effects an overwhelming chunk of the programming community. Specifically, the users that program with Regular¹ types and expect that they would compose naturally.

The proposal presents means of generating default equality/inequality for Regular, as well as relational operators for Totally Ordered² user-defined types. Such types should be trivial to implement and easy to understand.

Specifically, I argue that:

1. The presence of operator==() implies that the type is Regular. I expect that the equality implemented fully (ie it is transitive, reflexive and holds for copies).
2. The presence of operator<() implies that the type is Totally Ordered.

Finally, the feature is strictly "opt in" so that semantics of existing code remain intact.

II. Motivation and scope

Simple means of doing equality are really useful in modern C++ code that operates with types composed of Regular members. The definition of equality is trivial in such cases - member-wise comparison. Inequality should then be generated as its boolean negation.

This proposal focuses on Regular and Totally Ordered types as they naturally compose. Such cases are becoming more prevalent as people program more with value types and so writing the same equality and relational operators becomes tiresome. This is especially true when trying to lexicographically compare members to achieve total ordering.

Consider the following trivial example where a C++ type represents some kind of user record:

struct user
{
    uint32_t id, rank, position;

    std::string first_name, last_name;

    std::string address1, address2, city, state, country;
    uint32_t us_zip_code;

    friend bool operator==(const user &, const user &);
    friend bool operator!=(const user &, const user &);

    friend bool operator<(const user &, const user &);
    friend bool operator>=(const user &, const user &);
    friend bool operator>(const user &, const user &);
    friend bool operator<=(const user &, const user &);
};

Verbosity

bool operator==(const user &a, const user &b)
{
    return a.id == b.id &&
           a.rank == b.rank &&
           a.position == b.position &&
           a.address1 == b.address1 &&
           a.address2 == b.address2 &&
           a.city == b.city &&
           a.state == b.state &&
           a.country == b.country &&
           a.us_zip_code == b.us_zip_code;
}

Also, the composite type is naturally Totally Ordered, yet that takes even more code:

bool operator<(const user &a, const user &b)
{
    // I could implement the full lexicographical comparison of members manually, yet I 
    // choose to cheat by using standard libraries
    return std::tie(a.id, a.rank, a.position,
                    a.address1, a.address2, a.city, a.state, a.country, 
                    a.us_zip_code)
           <
           std::tie(b.id, b.rank, b.position, 
                    b.address1, b.address2, b.city, b.state, b.country,
                    b.us_zip_code);
}

• needlessly verbose - every member is already comparable (Regular and Totally Ordered)
• error prone - the author could miss a member and the implementation may become stale when a new member is added
• not in the spirit of Modern C++: correct things should be intuitive and easy

Correctness

It is vital that equal/unequal, less/more-or-equals and more/less-or-equal pairs behave as boolean negations of each other. After all, we are building total ordering and the world would make no sense if both operator==() and operator!=() returned false!

As such, it is common to implement these operators in terms of each other.

Inequality for Regular types:

bool operator!=(const user &a, const user &b) 
{
    return !(a == b);
}

Relational operators for Totally Ordered types:

bool operator>=(const user &a, const user &b)
{
    return !(a < b);
}

bool operator>(const user &a, const user &b)
{
    return b < a;
}

bool operator<=(const user &a, const user &b)
{
    return !(a > r);
}

• Based on my experience, these templates are applicable to the vast majority of types that define comparison operators (as the members are very often regular and totally ordered)
• The users should have some kind of "short hand" for stating what is common, correct and simple
• These relations are algebraic in nature and must be considered carefully. For example, operator<() must remain transitive in its nature.

III. Design decisions

The proposed syntax: long form

Member-wise generation of special functions is already present in the Standard (see Section 12), so it seems natural to extend the scope of generation and reuse the existing syntax.

The proposed syntax for generating the new explicitly defaulted non-member operators is as follows:

struct Thing
{
    int a, b, c;
    std::string d;
};

bool operator==(const Thing &, const Thing &)= default;
bool operator!=(const Thing &, const Thing &)= default;

There are cases where members are private and so the operators need to be declared as friend. Consider the following syntax:

class AnotherThing
{
    int a, b;

public:
    // ...

    friend bool operator<(Thing, Thing) = default;
    friend bool operator>(Thing, Thing) = default;
    friend bool operator<=(Thing, Thing) = default;
    friend bool operator>=(Thing, Thing) = default;
};

I feel this is a natural choice because:

• C++11 already has member function specifiers such as default and delete
• Users can "opt in" to get the new behavior
• The new functions are explicitly declared using a familiar syntax, so users get a feel of what they are asking for
• The user can specify whether the parameters are taken by value or by reference

Several committee members expressed strong support for a shorter form that would radically reduce the amount of code it takes to declare the non-member operators. Here is the short-hand that extends to the long form defined above.

struct Thing
{
    int a, b, c;
    std::string d;

    default: ==, !=, <, >, <=, >=;   // defines the six non-member functions
};

Notes on the light short-hand notation:

• Radical reduction in boiler-plate that is otherwise be copied and pasted
• The compiler will choose the argument types for correctness and performance

Other points of consideration

It is possible to mandate that every explicitly defaulted operator is to be implemented in a member-wise fashion. In fact, it would we consistent with copy construction, assignment and equality. However:

• Such an implementation is not useful. It would generate useless code which may be sizable due to the number of members.
• The most logical choice for inequality is the boolean negation of equality. The same applies to the other operators - they can all be derived.
• Users are still free to implement the operators in any way they see fit - the defaulted functions are "opt in" and strive to simplify the common case where users deal with regular types.

The Evolution WG was divided on the mutable treatment. There were two mutually exclusive views:

1. Exclude mutable members from the comparison operators.
   - such members were invented for caching data derived from the object's state
   - as such, they are not a part of the value type and should not participate in comparisons
2. Include mutable members when doing comparisons (ie no special treatment)
   - such implementation is consistent with special member functions: copy constructor and assignment operator

I prefer option (1) above, yet the only way to resolve the committee dead lock is to make code with such members ill-formed. The user would have to implement the comparison operators manually. The committee thus reserves an option to reconsider the decision at a later stage, as part of a follow up proposal.

There are some built-in types that are not totally ordered or cannot always be compared. Namely, "less than" is only defined for pointers of the same type that refer to memory allocated from a single contiguous region, IEEE floating point numbers have the NaN and the comparisons are defined in a very special way.

Design decisions:

1. Floating point members prevent generation of explicitly defaulted operators
2. Equality is defined for pointer types, so such members are supported when generating explicitly equality/inequality operators
3. Relational operators are not always defined for pointers, so such members prevent generation of explicitly defaulted relational operators

Other option:

• The technical specification could state that the generated equality and relational operators are only defined in the domain of the members' normal values. This would let the compiler generate code for pointers and floating point values, but put more responsibility on the users to avoid undefined behavior...

IV. Technical specifications

Edit section 8.4.2 "Explicitly-defaulted functions [dcl.fct.def.default]"

1. A function definition of the form:
   attribute-specifier-seq_opt decl-specifier-seq_opt declarator virt-specifier-seq_opt = default ;
   is called an explicitly-defaulted definition. A function that is explicitly defaulted shall
   — be a special member function, or an explicitly defaultable operator function. See [defaultable]

New section in 8.4

After 8.4.3 add a new section

8.4.4 Explicitly defaultable operator functions [defaultable]

The following friend operator functions are explicitly defaultable:

1. Non-member equality operators: operator==(), operator!=(), see [class.equality]
2. Non-member relational operators: operator<(), operator>(), operator<=(), operator>=(), see [class.relational]

Edit section "12 Special member function [special]"

The default constructor (12.1), copy constructor and copy assignment operator (12.8), move constructor and move assignment operator (12.8) and destructor (12.4) are special member functions. These, together with equality operators (12.10) and relational operators (12.11) may be explicitly defaulted as per [dcl.fct.def.default]

New sections in 12

After 12.9 add a new section

12.10 Equality operators [class.equality]

1. A non-union class may provide overloaded operator==() and operator!=() as per [over.oper]. A default implementation these non-member operators may be generated via the = default notation as it may be explicitly defaulted as per [dcl.fct.def.default].
2. The defaulted operator==() definition is generated if and only if all sub-objects and base classes are integral types, enumerated types, pointer types or user-defined types that provide operator==(), as well as arrays of that.
3. If a class with a defaulted operator==() has a mutable member, the program is ill-formed
4. The defaulted operator==() for class X shall take two arguments of type X by value or by const reference and return bool.
5. The explicitly defaulted non-member operator==() for a non-union class X shall perform memberwise equality comparison of its subobjects. Namely, a comparison of the subobjects that have the same position in both objects against each other until one subobject is not equal to the other.

   Direct base classes of X are compared first, in the order of their declaration in the base-specifier-list, and then the immediate non-static data members of X are compared, in the order in which they were declared in the class definition.

   Let x and y be the parameters of the defaulted operator function. Each subobject is compared in the manner appropriate to its type:

   • if the subobject is of class type, as if by a call to operator==() with the subobject of x and the corresponding subobject of y as a function arguments (as if by explicit qualification; that is, ignoring any possible virtual overriding functions in more derived classes);
   • if the subobject is an array, each element is compared in the manner appropriate to the element type;
   • if the subobject is of a scalar type, the built-in "equality" operator is used.
6. The explicitly-defaulted non-member operator!=() for a non-union class shall perform an operation equivalent to the equality comparison between the two function parameters and then return a boolean negation of the result.

Example:

struct T {
    int a, b, c;
    std::string d;
};

bool operator==(const T &, const T &) = default;

Note, floating point values are regular only in the domain of normal values (outside of the NaN), so such members make the explicitly defaulted operator==() and operator!=() functions ill-formed. Users are free to implement equality manually in such cases.

After 12.10 add a new section

12.11 Relational operators [class.relational]

1. A non-union class may provide overloaded relational operators as per [over.oper]. A default implementation of a non-member relational operator may be generated via the = default notation as these may be explicitly defaulted as per [dcl.fct.def.default].
2. The defaulted operator<() definition is generated if and only if all sub-objects and base classes are integral types, enumerated types or user-defined types that provide operator<(), as well as arrays of that.
3. If a class with a defaulted operator<() has a mutable member, the program is ill-formed
4. The defaulted operator<() for class X shall take two arguments of type X by value or by const reference and return bool.
5. The explicitly-defaulted operator<() for a non-union class X shall perform memberwise lexicographical comparison of its subobjects. Namely, a comparison of the subobjects that have the same position in both objects against each other until one subobject is not equivalent to the other. The result of comparing these first non-matching elements is the result of the function.

   Direct base classes of X are compared first, in the order of their declaration in the base-specifier-list, and then the immediate non-static data members of X are compared, in the order in which they were declared in the class definition.

   Let x and y be the parameters of the defaulted operator function. Each subobject is compared in the manner appropriate to its type:

   • if the subobject is of class type, as if by a call to operator<() with the subobject of x and the corresponding subobject of y as a function arguments (as if by explicit qualification; that is, ignoring any possible virtual overriding functions in more derived classes);
   • if the subobject is an array, each element is compared in the manner appropriate to the element type;
   • if the subobject is of a scalar type, the built-in "less than" operator is used.
6. An explicitly-defaulted non-member operator>=() for a non-union class shall perform an operation equivalent to a "less than" comparison between the two function parameters (in the left-to-right order) and then return a boolean negation of the result
7. An explicitly-defaulted non-member operator>() for a non-union class shall perform an operation equivalent to a "less than" comparison between the two function parameters (in the right-to-left order) and then return the result
8. An explicitly-defaulted non-member operator<=() for a non-union class shall perform an operation equivalent to a "greater than" comparisong between the two function parameters (in the left-to-right) order and then returns the result

Example:

struct T {
    int a, b;

    friend bool operator<(T, T) = default;
};

Note, pointer comparisons are only defined for a subset of values, floating point values are totally ordered only in the domain of normal values (outside of the NaN), so such members make the explicitly defaulted relational operators ill-formed. Users are free to implement relational operator functions manually in such cases.

After 12.11 add a new section

12.12 Explicitly defaulted equality and relational operators - short form [class.oper-short]

1. A non-union class may provide explicitly defaulted equality and relational operators as per [class.equality] and [class.relational] respectively. These non-member operators can also be generated via the short form of the notation:
   default: [the coma-separated list of operators];
2. The following six short-hand names map to the explicitly defaultable equality and relational operators: ==, !=, <, <=, >, >=.
3. The implementation must expand each term of the short form into a full declaration subject to [class.equality] and [class.relational], while choosing how to pass the arguments in order to maximize performance.

Example:

struct Thing
{
    int a, b, c;
    std::string d;

    default: ==, !=;   // defines equality/inequality non-member functions
};

V. Acknowledgments

I believe the fundamental idea comes from Alex Stepanov as his work revolves around regular types. Such types are automatically copied, assigned and compared, and so should the composite ones that they comprise. The first two points have been natively supported by the C++ language from the beginning and this proposal attempts to address the last one.

I want to thank Andrew Sutton for the early feedback and guidance, as well as Bjarne Stroustrup for loudly asking for consensus on small, fundamental language cleanups that strive to make users' lives easier.

Editorial credits go to Daniel Krügler, Ville Voutilainen, Jens Maurer and Lawrence Crowl - thank you for helping with the technical specification!

Finally, many folks on the c++std-ext list have provided valuable advice and guidance. Thank you for the lively discussion and your help with steering the design!

VI. References

1 The Regular concept is defined by Stepanov in the following way:

• Default construction, destruction, copy construction and assignment are defined
• Copy and assignment are implemented fully (a copy is equal to the original)
• Equality is defined to return true IFF both objects represent the same value (this relation is transitive, reflexive and symmetric)
• Inequality is defined as a boolean negation of equality

2 The Totally Ordered concept extends Regular with the following:

• operator<() is defined, operator>=() is defined as its boolean negation
• Every relational operator is transitive

See "Elements of programming" by Alexander Stepanov and Paul McJones for a full treatment of Regular and Totally Ordered concepts.