Util::Atom< TYPE > Class Template Reference

#include <atom.h>

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Detailed Description

template<class TYPE>
class Util::Atom< TYPE >

An Atom is a compact, shared reference of a constant object. A unique object is guaranteed to exist only once, no matter how many Atoms are pointing to it. Copying Atoms and comparing against Atoms is very fast, since these are actually pointer operations.

Note that comparing 2 Atoms against each other will yield a different result then comparing the contents of the same Atoms. This is because comparing 2 Atoms actually compares the addresses of the content without actually invoking the compare operators of the content. So, comparing 2 Atom<String>'s will never do a strcmp(), instead the string pointers are compared against each other.

Atoms are consistent across threads.

The Atom table will *not* be garbage collected automatically, this means, entries for which no more Atoms exist will not be removed automatically. This is to prevent excessive allocations/deallocations for some usage scenarios. Instead, if you want to remove orphaned entries, call the PerformGarbageCollection() method manually.

(C) 2007 Radon Labs GmbH

Public Member Functions
	Atom ()
	default constructor
	Atom (const TYPE &rhs)
	construct from type
	Atom (const Atom< TYPE > &rhs)
	copy constructor
	~Atom ()
	destructor
void	operator= (const TYPE &rhs)
	assignment from type
void	operator= (const Atom< TYPE > &rhs)
	assignment from other atom
bool	operator== (const TYPE &rhs) const
	equality operator with atom content
bool	operator!= (const TYPE &rhs) const
	inequality operator with atom content
bool	operator> (const TYPE &rhs) const
	greater-then operator with atom content
bool	operator< (const TYPE &rhs) const
	less-then operator with atom content
bool	operator>= (const TYPE &rhs) const
	greater-or-equal operator with atom content
bool	operator<= (const TYPE &rhs) const
	less-or-equal operator with atom content
bool	operator== (const Atom< TYPE > &rhs) const
	equality operator between atoms
bool	operator!= (const Atom< TYPE > &rhs) const
	inequality operator between atoms
bool	operator> (const Atom< TYPE > &rhs) const
	greater-then operator between atoms
bool	operator< (const Atom< TYPE > &rhs) const
	less-then operator between atoms
bool	operator>= (const Atom< TYPE > &rhs) const
	greater-or-equal operator between atoms
bool	operator<= (const Atom< TYPE > &rhs) const
	less-or-equal operator between atoms
void	Clear ()
	clear content
bool	IsValid () const
	return true if the Atom is valid
const TYPE &	Value () const
	access to referenced object
Static Public Member Functions
static void	PerformGarbageCollection ()
	perform garbage collection on atom table
static SizeT	GetAtomTableSize ()
	get current atom table size (for debugging)