How can you iterate over the elements of an std::tuple?

Question

How can I iterate over a tuple (using C++11)? I tried the following:

for(int i=0; i<std::tuple_size<T...>::value; ++i) 
  std::get<i>(my_tuple).do_sth();

but this doesn't work:

Error 1: sorry, unimplemented: cannot expand ‘Listener ...’ into a fixed-length argument list.
Error 2: i cannot appear in a constant expression.

So, how do I correctly iterate over the elements of a tuple?

Answer 1

I have an answer based on Iterating over a Tuple:

#include <tuple>
#include <utility> 
#include <iostream>

template<std::size_t I = 0, typename... Tp>
inline typename std::enable_if<I == sizeof...(Tp), void>::type
  print(std::tuple<Tp...>& t)
  { }

template<std::size_t I = 0, typename... Tp>
inline typename std::enable_if<I < sizeof...(Tp), void>::type
  print(std::tuple<Tp...>& t)
  {
    std::cout << std::get<I>(t) << std::endl;
    print<I + 1, Tp...>(t);
  }

int
main()
{
  typedef std::tuple<int, float, double> T;
  T t = std::make_tuple(2, 3.14159F, 2345.678);

  print(t);
}

The usual idea is to use compile time recursion. In fact, this idea is used to make a printf that is type safe as noted in the original tuple papers.

This can be easily generalized into a for_each for tuples:

#include <tuple>
#include <utility> 

template<std::size_t I = 0, typename FuncT, typename... Tp>
inline typename std::enable_if<I == sizeof...(Tp), void>::type
  for_each(std::tuple<Tp...> &, FuncT) // Unused arguments are given no names.
  { }

template<std::size_t I = 0, typename FuncT, typename... Tp>
inline typename std::enable_if<I < sizeof...(Tp), void>::type
  for_each(std::tuple<Tp...>& t, FuncT f)
  {
    f(std::get<I>(t));
    for_each<I + 1, FuncT, Tp...>(t, f);
  }

Though this then requires some effort to have FuncT represent something with the appropriate overloads for every type the tuple might contain. This works best if you know all the tuple elements will share a common base class or something similar.