boost/python/make_function.hpp

Introduction

make_function() and make_constructor() are the functions used internally by def() and class_<>::def() to produce Python callable objects which wrap C++ functions and member functions.

F is a function pointer or member function pointer type. If policies are supplied, it must be a model of CallPolicies. If kewords are supplied, it must be the result of a keyword-expression specifying no more arguments than the arity of f.

Effects

Creates a Python callable object which, when called from Python, converts its arguments to C++ and calls f. If F is a pointer-to-member-function type, the target object of the function call (*this) will be taken from the first Python argument, and subsequent Python arguments will be used as the arguments to f.

If policies are supplied, it will be applied to the function as described here.
If keywords are supplied, the keywords will be applied in order to the final arguments of the resulting function.
If Signature is supplied, it should be an instance of an MPL front-extensible sequence representing the function's return type followed by its argument types. Pass a Signature when wrapping function object types whose signatures can't be deduced, or when you wish to override the types which will be passed to the wrapped function.

Returns

An instance of object which holds the new Python callable object.

Caveats

An argument of pointer type may be 0 if None is passed from Python. An argument type which is a constant reference may refer to a temporary which was created from the Python object for just the duration of the call to the wrapped function, for example a std::vector conjured up by the conversion process from a Python list. Use a non-const reference argument when a persistent lvalue is required.

template <class F>
object make_constructor(F f)

template <class F, class Policies>
object make_constructor(F f, Policies const& policies)

template <class F, class Policies, class KeywordsOrSignature>
object make_constructor(F f, Policies const& policies, KeywordsOrSignature const& ks)

template <class F, class Policies, class Keywords, class Signature>
object make_constructor(F f, Policies const& policies, Keywords const& kw, Signature const& sig)

Requires: F is a function pointer type. If policies are supplied, it must be a model of CallPolicies. If kewords are supplied, it must be the result of a keyword-expression specifying no more arguments than the arity of f.
Effects: Creates a Python callable object which, when called from Python, converts its arguments to C++ and calls f.
Returns: An instance of object which holds the new Python callable object.

Example

C++ function exposed below returns a callable object wrapping one of two functions.

#include <boost/python/make_function.hpp>
#include <boost/python/module.hpp>

char const* foo() { return "foo"; }
char const* bar() { return "bar"; }

using namespace boost::python;
object choose_function(bool selector)
{
    if (selector)
        return boost::python::make_function(foo);
    else
        return boost::python::make_function(bar);
}

BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(make_function_test)
{
    def("choose_function", choose_function);
}

It can be used this way in Python:

>>> from make_function_test import *
>>> f = choose_function(1)
>>> g = choose_function(0)
>>> f()
'foo'
>>> g()
'bar'