TQDeepCopy Class Reference

The TQDeepCopy class is a template class which ensures that implicitly shared and explicitly shared classes reference unique data. More...

All the functions in this class are reentrant when TQt is built with thread support.

#include <tqdeepcopy.h>

List of all member functions.

Public Members

TQDeepCopy ()
TQDeepCopy ( const T & t )
TQDeepCopy<T> & operator= ( const T & t )
operator T ()

Detailed Description

The TQDeepCopy class is a template class which ensures that implicitly shared and explicitly shared classes reference unique data.

Normally, shared copies reference the same data to optimize memory use and for maximum speed. In the example below, s1, s2, s3, s4 and s5 share data.

    // all 5 strings share the same data
    TQString s1 = "abcd";
    TQString s2 = s1;
    TQString s3 = s2;
    TQString s4 = s3;
    TQString s5 = s2;

TQDeepCopy can be used several ways to ensure that an object references unique, unshared data. In the example below, s1, s2 and s5 share data, while neither s3 nor s4 share data.

    // s1, s2 and s5 share the same data, neither s3 nor s4 are shared
    TQString s1 = "abcd";
    TQString s2 = s1;
    TQDeepCopy<TQString> s3 = s2;  // s3 is a deep copy of s2
    TQString s4 = s3;             // s4 is a deep copy of s3
    TQString s5 = s2;

In the example below, s1, s2 and s5 share data, and s3 and s4 share data.

    // s1, s2 and s5 share the same data, s3 and s4 share the same data
    TQString s1 = "abcd";
    TQString s2 = s1;
    TQString s3 = TQDeepCopy<TQString>( s2 );  // s3 is a deep copy of s2
    TQString s4 = s3;                        // s4 is a shallow copy of s3
    TQString s5 = s2;

TQDeepCopy can also provide safety in multithreaded applications that use shared classes. In the example below, the variable global_string is used safely since the data contained in global_string is always a deep copy. This ensures that all threads get a unique copy of the data, and that any assignments to global_string will result in a deep copy.

    TQDeepCopy<TQString> global_string;  // global string data
    TQMutex global_mutex;               // mutex to protext global_string

    ...

    void setGlobalString( const TQString &str )
    {
        global_mutex.lock();
        global_string = str;           // global_string is a deep copy of str
        global_mutex.unlock();
    }

    ...

    void MyThread::run()
    {
        global_mutex.lock();
        TQString str = global_string;          // str is a deep copy of global_string
        global_mutex.unlock();

        // process the string data
        ...

        // update global_string
        setGlobalString( str );
    }

Warning: It is the application developer's responsibility to protect the object shared across multiple threads.

The examples above use TQString, which is an implicitly shared class. The behavior of TQDeepCopy is the same when using explicitly shared classes like TQByteArray.

Currently, TQDeepCopy works with the following classes:

TQMemArray (including subclasses like TQByteArray and TQCString)
TQMap
TQString
TQValueList (including subclasses like TQStringList and TQValueStack)
TQValueVector

Member Function Documentation

TQDeepCopy::TQDeepCopy ()

Constructs an empty instance of type T.

TQDeepCopy::TQDeepCopy ( const T & t )

Constructs a deep copy of t.

TQDeepCopy::operator T ()

Returns a deep copy of the encapsulated data.

TQDeepCopy<T> & TQDeepCopy::operator= ( const T & t )

Assigns a deep copy of t.

Trademarks

TQt 3.3.8