C++: True Allocator Aware Containers

3 years ago by Lukas Kerkemeier

The C++ standard definition of allocator aware containers is not completely correct. It is problematic if you try to use an allocator based on "fancy pointers".

This post collects all information I gathered on how to write a true allocator aware container.

First of all your container should follow this and this definition. Here it is really important that you define allocator_type because std::uses_allocator only checks if this alias (or using declaration) exists.

Additionally you have to introduce a pointer alias like using pointer = std::allocator_traits::pointer. Here lies the magic. Many containers simply do using pointer = T*, which isn't compatible with fancy pointers.

Now you simply use the aliases on all occasions and you allocate, deallocate, construct and destroy via the allocator_traits.

Then you only need to look out for one more thing: construct and destroy work on raw pointers. However you can use boost::to_address or std::to_address (C++ 20) on a fancy pointer to get the corresponding raw pointer.

Now we can combine these information into one example:

template <typename T, typename Alloc = std::allocator<T>>
class Example {
public:
  using value_type = T;
  using allocator_type = Alloc; //rebind might be needed
  using allocator_traits =  std::allocator_traits<allocator_type>;
  using pointer = allocator_traits::pointer;
  using const_pointer = allocator_traits::const_pointer;
  //... the other aliases ...//
private:
  allocator_type _alloc;
  allocator_type &alloc() {return _alloc;}
  allocator_type const &alloc() const {return _alloc;}
  pointer allocate_wrap(std::size_t n) {
    return allocator_traits::allocate(this->alloc(), n);
  }
  void deallocate_wrap(pointer p, std::size_t n) {
    allocator_traits::allocate(this->alloc(), p, n);
  }
  template <typename... Args>
  void construct_wrap(pointer p, Args &&... args) {
    allocator_traits::construct(this->alloc(),
      std::to_address(p), std::forward<Args>(args)...);
  }
  void destroy_wrap(pointer p) {
    allocator_traits::destroy(this->alloc(), std::to_address(p));
  }
};

CAUTION: I did not write every typename needed.

Scoped Allocators

If you have a container of containers you probably need to use the scoped_allocator_adaptor (cppreference). It is a allocator specifically designed for this use case. You can imagine it as a list of allocators. The first allocator is used for the most outer container, the second allocator is used for the container inside that one and so on.

The trick of the scoped allocator is that allocate and deallocate use the most outer allocator, but in construct and destruct all allocators except the outer one will be used. In reality it is a lot more complex but this is sufficient to understand the principle.

So the existence of the scoped allocator can be ignored from a container perspective as long as all calls to the allocator go through the allocator_traits.