How to drive C#, C++ or Java compiler to compute 1+2+3+…+1000 at compile time?

Updated Now with improved recursion depth! Works on MSVC10 and GCC without increased depth. 🙂


Simple compile-time recursion + addition:

template<unsigned Cur, unsigned Goal>
struct adder{
  static unsigned const sub_goal = (Cur + Goal) / 2;
  static unsigned const tmp = adder<Cur, sub_goal>::value;
  static unsigned const value = tmp + adder<sub_goal+1, Goal>::value;
};

template<unsigned Goal>
struct adder<Goal, Goal>{
  static unsigned const value = Goal;
};

Testcode:

template<unsigned Start>
struct sum_from{
  template<unsigned Goal>
  struct to{
    template<unsigned N>
    struct equals;

    typedef equals<adder<Start, Goal>::value> result;
  };
};

int main(){
  sum_from<1>::to<1000>::result();
}

Output for GCC:

error: declaration of ‘struct sum_from<1u>::to<1000u>::equals<500500u>’

Live example on Ideone.

Output for MSVC10:

error C2514: 'sum_from<Start>::to<Goal>::equals<Result>' : class has no constructors
      with
      [
          Start=1,
          Goal=1000,
          Result=500500
      ]

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