C++: defining maximum/minimum limits for a class
- by Luis
Basically what the title says... I have created a class that models time slots in a variable-granularity daily schedule (where for example the first time slot is 30 minutes, but the second time slot can be 40 minutes); the first available slot starts at (a value comparable to) 1.
What I want to do now is to define somehow the maximum and minimum allowable values that this class takes and I have two practical questions in order to do so:
1.- does it make sense to define absolute minimum and maximum in such a way for a custom class? Or better, does it suffice that a value always compares as lower-than any other possible value of the type, given the class's defined relational operators, to be defined the min? (and analogusly for the max)
2.- assuming the previous question has an answer modeled after "yes" (or "yes but ..."), how do I define such max/min? I know that there is std::numeric_limits<> but from what I read it is intended for "numeric types". Do I interpret that as meaning "represented as a number" or can I make a broader assumption like "represented with numbers" or "having a correspondence to integers"? After all, it would make sense to define the minimum and maximum for a date class, and maybe for a dictionary class, but numeric_limits may not be intended for those uses (I don't have much experience with it). Plus, numeric_limits has a lot of extra members and information that I don't know what to make with. If I don't use numeric_limits, what other well-known / widely-used mechanism does C++ offer to indicate the available range of values for a class?
