return type based on content of an array

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On 2/21/18 1:45 AM, thorstein wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm going circles... ;) I read a string that contains an array of 
> unknown dimension like:
> a = [1,2,3,4] or
> a = [[1,2],[3,4]] or
> a = [[[1,2],[3,4]],[[5,6],[7,8]]]
> 
> With that I want to perform specified operations e.g. also provided on 
> command line.
> 
> Because at compile time the dimension of the array is unkown I did not 
> find any possibility to do something like:
> 
> auto arr = func(a);
> 
> where 'auto func(string str)' should return either a 1D, 2D, 3D array 
> and arr is not locked in an if(){} scope.
> 
> Is there any way and What should I'm looking for?
> 

If you want a specific type that the type system cares about, you have 
to implement every possibility. Then you can use Variant.

But if you want a recursive strategy, where you need the dimensions at 
runtime only, then you can write a struct with a tagged union which 
gives you all the info you need:

struct NDimArray
{
    size_t dimensions; // if 0, then this is a value
    union {
    	NDimArray[] elements;
         int value;
    }
}

You can probably figure out the rest. Probably you can eliminate the 
dimensions field somehow to save space.

This is how things like JSON DOM structures work.

-Steve