C++11 way to index tuple at runtime without using switch

Here's a version that doesn't use an index sequence:

template <size_t I>
struct visit_impl
{
    template <typename T, typename F>
    static void visit(T& tup, size_t idx, F fun)
    {
        if (idx == I - 1) fun(std::get<I - 1>(tup));
        else visit_impl<I - 1>::visit(tup, idx, fun);
    }
};

template <>
struct visit_impl<0>
{
    template <typename T, typename F>
    static void visit(T& tup, size_t idx, F fun) { assert(false); }
};

template <typename F, typename... Ts>
void visit_at(std::tuple<Ts...> const& tup, size_t idx, F fun)
{
    visit_impl<sizeof...(Ts)>::visit(tup, idx, fun);
}

template <typename F, typename... Ts>
void visit_at(std::tuple<Ts...>& tup, size_t idx, F fun)
{
    visit_impl<sizeof...(Ts)>::visit(tup, idx, fun);
}

DEMO

Here's an unreadably over-generic implementation without recursion. I don't think I'd use this in production - it's a good example of write-only code - but it's interesting that it can be done. (DEMO):

#include <array>
#include <cstddef>
#include <initializer_list>
#include <tuple>
#include <iostream>
#include <type_traits>
#include <utility>

template <std::size_t...Is> struct index_sequence {};

template <std::size_t N, std::size_t...Is>
struct build : public build<N - 1, N - 1, Is...> {};

template <std::size_t...Is>
struct build<0, Is...> {
    using type = index_sequence<Is...>;
};

template <std::size_t N>
using make_index_sequence = typename build<N>::type;

template <typename T>
using remove_reference_t = typename std::remove_reference<T>::type;

namespace detail {
template <class Tuple, class F, std::size_t...Is>
void tuple_switch(const std::size_t i, Tuple&& t, F&& f, index_sequence<Is...>) {
  [](...){}(
    (i == Is && (
       (void)std::forward<F>(f)(std::get<Is>(std::forward<Tuple>(t))), false))...
  );
}
} // namespace detail

template <class Tuple, class F>
void tuple_switch(const std::size_t i, Tuple&& t, F&& f) {
  static constexpr auto N =
    std::tuple_size<remove_reference_t<Tuple>>::value;

  detail::tuple_switch(i, std::forward<Tuple>(t), std::forward<F>(f),
                       make_index_sequence<N>{});
}

constexpr struct {
  template <typename T>
  void operator()(const T& t) const {
      std::cout << t << '\n';
  }
} print{};

int main() {

  {
    auto const t = std::make_tuple(42, 'z', 3.14, 13, 0, "Hello, World!");

    for (std::size_t i = 0; i < std::tuple_size<decltype(t)>::value; ++i) {
      tuple_switch(i, t, print);
    }
  }

  std::cout << '\n';

  {
    auto const t = std::array<int, 4>{{0,1,2,3}};
    for (std::size_t i = 0; i < t.size(); ++i) {
      tuple_switch(i, t, print);
    }
  }
}

It's possible but it's pretty ugly:

#include <tuple>
#include <iostream>

template<typename T>
void doSomething(T t) { std::cout << t << '\n';}

template<int... N>
struct Switch;

template<int N, int... Ns>
struct Switch<N, Ns...>
{
  template<typename... T>
    void operator()(int n, std::tuple<T...>& t)
    {
      if (n == N)
        doSomething(std::get<N>(t));
      else
        Switch<Ns...>()(n, t);
    }
};

// default
template<>
struct Switch<>
{
  template<typename... T>
    void operator()(int n, std::tuple<T...>& t) { }
};

int main()
{
  std::tuple<int, char, double, int, int, const char*> t;
  Switch<1, 2, 4, 5>()(4, t);
}

Just list each constant that would have been a case label in the original switch in the template argument list for the Switch specialization.

For this to compile, doSomething(std::get<N>(t)) must be a valid expression for every N in the argument list of the Switch specialization ... but that's true of the switch statement too.

For a small number of cases it compiles to the same code as a switch, I didn't check if it scales to large numbers of cases.

If you don't want to type out every number in Switch<1, 2, 3, 4, ... 255> then you could create a std::integer_sequence and then use that to instantiate the Switch:

template<size_t... N>
Switch<N...>
make_switch(std::index_sequence<N...>)
{
  return {};
}

std::tuple<int, char, double, int, int, const char*> t;
make_switch(std::make_index_sequence<4>{})(3, t);

This creates a Switch<0,1,2,3> so if you don't want the 0 case you'd need to manipulate the index_sequence, e.g. this chops the zero off the front of the list:

template<size_t... N>
Switch<N...>
make_switch(std::index_sequence<0, N...>)
{
  return {};
}

Unfortunately GCC crashes when trying to compile make_index_sequence<255> as it involves too much recursion and uses too much memory, and Clang rejects it by default too (because it has a very low default for -ftemplate-instantiation-depth) so this isn't a very practical solution!