std::placeholders::_1, std::placeholders::_2, ..., std::placeholders::_N

C++

Language

Headers

Freestanding and hosted implementations

Named requirements

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Diagnostics library

Utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Algorithms library

Iterators library

Numerics library

Input/output library

Localizations library

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Filesystem library (C++17)

Technical Specifications

Utilities library

Type support (basic types, RTTI, type traits)
Dynamic memory management
Error handling
Program utilities
Variadic functions
Library feature-test macros
Date and time
Function objects
initializer_list (C++11)
bitset
hash (C++11)
integer_sequence (C++14)
Relational operators (deprecated)
rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator>rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>=
Comparisons (C++20)
strong_order weak_order partial_order strong_equal weak_equal	strong_ordering weak_ordering partial_ordering strong_equality weak_equality	is_eqis_neqis_ltis_lteqis_gtis_gteq
common_comparison_category
Common vocabulary types
pair tuple (C++11) apply (C++17) make_from_tuple (C++17)	optional (C++17) any (C++17) variant (C++17)
Swap, forward and move
swap
exchange (C++14)
forward (C++11)
move (C++11)
move_if_noexcept (C++11)
Elementary string conversions
to_chars (C++17)
from_chars (C++17)
chars_format (C++17)
Type operations
declval (C++11)
as_const (C++17)

Function objects

Function wrappers function (C++11) mem_fn (C++11) bad_function_call (C++11)	Bind bind (C++11) is_bind_expression (C++11) is_placeholder (C++11) _1, _2, _3, ... (C++11)
Function invocation invoke (C++17) Identity function object identity (C++20)	Reference wrappers reference_wrapper (C++11) refcref (C++11)(C++11)
Operator wrappers
plus minus negate multiplies divides modulus logical_and logical_or logical_not	equal_to not_equal_to greater less greater_equal less_equal bit_and bit_or bit_xor bit_not (C++14)
Negators
not_fn (C++17)
Searchers
default_searcher (C++17)
boyer_moore_searcher (C++17)
boyer_moore_horspool_searcher (C++17)
Old binders and adaptors
unary_function (until C++17) binary_function (until C++17) ptr_fun (until C++17) pointer_to_unary_function (until C++17) pointer_to_binary_function (until C++17) mem_fun (until C++17) mem_fun_tmem_fun1_tconst_mem_fun_tconst_mem_fun1_t (until C++17)(until C++17)(until C++17)(until C++17) not1 (until C++20) not2 (until C++20)	binder1stbinder2nd (until C++17)(until C++17) bind1stbind2nd (until C++17)(until C++17) mem_fun_ref (until C++17) mem_fun_ref_tmem_fun1_ref_tconst_mem_fun_ref_tconst_mem_fun1_ref_t (until C++17)(until C++17)(until C++17)(until C++17) unary_negate (until C++20) binary_negate (until C++20)

Defined in header <functional>
/*see below*/ _1; /*see below*/ _2; . . /*see below*/ _N;

The std::placeholders namespace contains the placeholder objects [_1, . . . _N] where N is an implementation defined maximum number.

When used as an argument in a std::bind expression, the placeholder objects are stored in the generated function object, and when that function object is invoked with unbound arguments, each placeholder _N is replaced by the corresponding Nth unbound argument.

Each placeholder is declared as if by extern /*unspecified*/ _1;	(until C++17)
Implementations are encouraged to declare the placeholders as if by inline constexpr /*unspecified*/ _1;, although declaring them by extern /*unspecified*/ _1; is still allowed by the standard.	(since C++17)

The types of the placeholder objects are DefaultConstructible and CopyConstructible, their default copy/move constructors do not throw exceptions, and for any placeholder _N, the type std::is_placeholder<decltype(_N)> is defined and is derived from std::integral_constant<int, N>.

Example

The following code shows the creation of function objects with a placeholder argument.

Run this code

#include <functional>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

void goodbye(const std::string& s)
{
    std::cout << "Goodbye " << s << '\n';
}

class Object {
public:
    void hello(const std::string& s)
    {
        std::cout << "Hello " << s << '\n';
    }
};

int main()
{
    typedef std::function<void(const std::string&)> ExampleFunction;
    Object instance;
    std::string str("World");
    ExampleFunction f = std::bind(&Object::hello, &instance, 
                                  std::placeholders::_1);

    // equivalent to instance.hello(str)
    f(str);
    f = std::bind(&goodbye, std::placeholders::_1);

    // equivalent to goodbye(str)
    f(str);    
    return 0;
}

Output:

Hello World
Goodbye World

See also

bind (C++11)	binds one or more arguments to a function object (function template)
is_placeholder (C++11)	indicates that an object is a standard placeholder or can be used as one (class template)
ignore	placeholder to skip an element when unpacking a tuple using tie (constant)