Boost C++ Libraries

...one of the most highly regarded and expertly designed C++ library projects in the world. — Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu, C++ Coding Standards

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Chapter 33. Boost.Ratio 2.1.0

Howard Hinnant

Beman Dawes

Vicente J. Botet Escriba

Copyright © 2008 Howard Hinnant

Copyright © 2006, 2008 Beman Dawes

Copyright © 2009-2012 Vicente J. Botet Escriba

Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)

Table of Contents

Overview
Motivation
Description
User's Guide
Getting Started
Tutorial
Example
External Resources
Reference
Standard C++11 Functionality
Ratio I/O
Appendices
Appendix A: History
Appendix B: Rationale
Appendix C: Implementation Notes
Appendix D: FAQ
Appendix E: Acknowledgements
Appendix F: Tests
Appendix G: Tickets
Appendix H: Future Plans

Overview

Motivation
Description

How to Use This Documentation

This documentation makes use of the following naming and formatting conventions.

  • Code is in fixed width font and is syntax-highlighted.
  • Replaceable text that you will need to supply is in italics.
  • Free functions are rendered in the code font followed by (), as in free_function().
  • If a name refers to a class template, it is specified like this: class_template<>; that is, it is in code font and its name is followed by <> to indicate that it is a class template.
  • If a name refers to a function-like macro, it is specified like this: MACRO(); that is, it is uppercase in code font and its name is followed by () to indicate that it is a function-like macro. Object-like macros appear without the trailing ().
  • Names that refer to concepts in the generic programming sense are specified in CamelCase.
[Note] Note

In addition, notes such as this one specify non-essential information that provides additional background or rationale.

Finally, you can mentally add the following to any code fragments in this document: 

// Include all of Ratio files
#include <boost/ratio.hpp>
using namespace boost;

Boost.Ratio aimed to implement the compile time ratio facility in C++11, as proposed in N2661 - A Foundation to Sleep On. That document provides background and motivation for key design decisions and is the source of a good deal of information in this documentation.

Since C++11 is now universally available, this library is only retained for backward compatibility, and starting with Boost 1.84, it's implemented in terms of the standard <ratio> header.

The Boost.Ratio library provides:

  • A class template, ratio, for specifying compile time rational constants such as 1/3 of a nanosecond or the number of inches per meter. ratio represents a compile time ratio of compile time constants with support for compile time arithmetic with overflow and division by zero protection.
  • It provides a textual representation of boost::ratio<N, D> in the form of a std::basic_string which can be useful for I/O.
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