Templates: Only execute method if class has it

Question

I want to write a function which executes the method of some templated class, but should also compile fine if the class doesn't have it. In that case, it should just not call the function.

struct A
{
   void func() {}
};

struct B
{
};

template <typename T>
void anotherFunc(T t)
{
   //do t.func() here if T implements func, just do nothing if it doesn't.
}

Is this possible somehow?

Answer 1

// type_sink takes a type, and discards it.  type_sink_t is a C++1y style using alias for it
template<typename T> struct type_sink { typedef void type; };
template<typename T> using type_sink_t = typename type_sink<T>::type;

// has_func is a traits class that inherits from `true_type` iff the expression t.func()
// is a valid one.  `std::true_type` has `::value=true`, and is a good canonical way to
// represent a compile-time `bool`ean value.
template<typename T,typename=void> struct has_func : std::false_type {};
template<typename T> struct has_func<
  T,
  type_sink_t< decltype( std::declval<T&>().func() ) >
> : std::true_type {};

// helpers for tag dispatching.
namespace helper_ns {
  template<typename T> void anotherFunc( T&& t, std::false_type /* has_func */ ) {}
  template<typename T> void anotherFunc( T&& t, std::true_type /* has_func */ ) {
    std::forward<T>(t).func();
  }
}
// take the type T, determine if it has a .func() method.  Then tag dispatch
// to the correct implementation:
template<typename T> void anotherFunc(T t) {
  helper_ns::anotherFunc( std::forward<T>(t), has_func<T>() );
}

is a C++11 solution that does tag dispatching on a traits class that determines if t.func() is a valid expression.