I am looking for a way to do "reflection" in C++ over a bit-field struct like this:
struct Bits {
uint32_t opCode : 5;
uint32_t header : 3;
uint32_t source : 5;
uint32_t destination : 5;
uint32_t offset : 13;
};
My goal is to be able to get things like:
- All member names as std::string list ex. "opCode", "header", etc...
- The underlying typename as a std::string ex. "uint32_t"
- The number of bits for each field as a std::int list ex. 5,3,5,5,13
with minimal hand-coding, macros, or boilerplate code. These values should in principal, be able to be determined at compile-time, though it is not a necessity.
After reading through this StackOverflow post, it is clear there are some "reflection" capabilities provided by libraries outside of standard C++. Looking into things like Precise and Flat Reflection, Ponder, Boost Reflect, and even Boost Hana, I have not found support for something like this.
I have already found a way to get the member names and typenames of a non-bitfield struct using Boost Hana [this achieves #1 and #2 for ordinary structs], and there is a way to get the member names of a bitfield struct using Boost Fusion [this achieves #1 for bitfield structs], though it is a custom code solution.
Alternatively, manually flattening/decaying the struct to a single unit32_t member struct like in this post:
struct BitsFlattened{
uint32_t message;
}
with manually coded getters and setters for the appropriate members is also a possibility, where getters might expose the information by their name ex. getopCode05(), getheader69().
