Frozen

Header-only, immutable (a.ka. frozen), constexpr-compatible versions of std::set, std::unordered_set, std::map and std::unordered_map.

The unordered_* containers are guaranteed perfect (a.k.a. no hash collision) and the extra storage is linear with respect to the number of keys.

Once initialized, the containers cannot be updated, and in exchange, lookups are faster. And initialization is free when constexpr is used :-).

Installation

Just copy the include/frozen directory somewhere and points to it using the -I flag.

Requirements

A C++ compiler that supports C++14. Clang version 5 is a good pick, GCC version 6 lags behind in terms of constexpr compilation time. At least on my setup.

Usage

Compiled with -std=c++14 flag:

#include <frozen/set.h>

constexpr frozen::set<int, 4> some_ints = {1,2,3,5};

constexpr bool letitgo = some_ints.count(8);

extern int n;
bool letitgoooooo = some_ints.count(n);

As the constructor and some methods are constexpr, it's also possible to write weird stuff like:

#include <frozen/set.h>

template<std::size_t N>
std::enable_if_t< frozen::set<int, 3>{{1,11,111}}.count(N), int> foo();

String support is built-in through a lightweight wrapper:

#include <frozen/unordered_map.h>
#include <frozen/string.h>

using namespace frozen::string_literals; // for the ""_s operator

constexpr frozen::unordered_map<frozen::string, int, 2> olaf = {
    {"19"_s, 19},
    {"31"_s, 31},
};
constexpr auto val = olaf.at("19"_s);

Extending

Just like the regular C++14 container, you can specialize the hash function, the key equality comparator for unordered_* containers, and the comparison functions for the ordered version.

It's also possible to specialize the frozen::elsa structure used for hashing. Note that two hashing algorithm are used: one for initial hashing and one to resolve conflicts.

template <class T> struct elsa {

  // used for first hash try
  constexpr std::size_t operator()(T const &value) const;

  // incase of conflict, this one is used to resolve conflicts, iterating over the seed
  constexpr std::size_t operator()(T const &value, std::size_t seed) const;
};

Troubleshooting

If you hit a message like this:

[...]
note: constexpr evaluation hit maximum step limit; possible infinite loop?

Then either you've got a very big container and you should increase Clang's thresholds, using -fconstexpr-steps=1000000000 for instance, or the hash functions used by frozen do not suit your data, and you should change them, as in the following:

struct olaf {

  constexpr std::size_t operator()(frozen::string const &value) const { return value.size; }

  constexpr std::size_t operator()(frozen::string const &value, std::size_t seed) const { return seed ^ value[0];}
};

constexpr frozen::unordered_set<frozen::string, 2, olaf/*custom hash*/> hans = { "a"_s, "b"_s };

Credits

The perfect hashing is strongly inspired by the blog post Throw away the keys: Easy, Minimal Perfect Hashing.

Thanks a lot to Jérôme Dumesnil for his high-quality reviews!

Contact

Serge sans Paille <sguelton@quarkslab.com>