Getting template metaprogramming compile-time constants at runtime

template <unsigned long N>
struct Fibonacci
{
    enum
    {
        value = Fibonacci<N-1>::value + Fibonacci<N-2>::value
    };
    static void add_values(vector<unsigned long>& v)
    {
        Fibonacci<N-1>::add_values(v);
        v.push_back(value);
    }
};

template <>
struct Fibonacci<0>
{
    enum
    {
        value = 0
    };
    static void add_values(vector<unsigned long>& v)
    {
        v.push_back(value);
    }

};

template <>
struct Fibonacci<1>
{
    enum
    {
        value = 1
    };
    static void add_values(vector<unsigned long>& v)
    {
        Fibonacci<0>::add_values(v);
        v.push_back(value);
    }
};



int main()
{
    vector<unsigned long> fibonacci_seq;
    Fibonacci<45>::add_values(fibonacci_seq);
    for (int i = 0; i <= 45; ++i)
        cout << "F" << i << " is " << fibonacci_seq[i] << '\n';
}

After much thought into the problem, I came up with this solution. Of course, you still have to add the values to a container at run-time, but (importantly) they are not computed at run-time.

As a side note, it’s important not to define Fibonacci<1> above Fibonacci<0>, or your compiler will get very confused when it resolves the call to Fibonacci<0>::add_values, since Fibonacci<0>‘s template specialization has not been specified.

Of course, TMP has its limitations: You need a precomputed maximum, and getting the values at run-time requires recursion (since templates are defined recursively).