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mp-units/docs/framework/quantity_points.rst
2023-05-26 13:53:52 +02:00

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.. namespace:: units
Quantity Points
===============
A quantity point is an absolute quantity with respect to an origin
and is represented in the library with a `quantity_point` class template.
Point Origins
-------------
We need a `point_origin` to represent the origin of a quantity point::
struct mean_sea_level : point_origin<si::dim_length> {};
Quantities points with this origin represent a point from the mean sea level.
The library offers a `dynamic_origin<Dimension>`
for quantity points whose origin is not specified in the type system.
Construction
------------
To create the quantity point object from a `quantity` we just have to pass
the value to the `quantity_point` class template explicit constructor::
quantity_point<dynamic_origin<si::dim_length>, si::kilometre, double> d(123 * km);
.. note::
As the constructor is explicit, the quantity object can be created from
a quantity only via
`direct initialization <https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/direct_initialization>`_.
This is why the code below using
`copy initialization <https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/copy_initialization>`_
**does not compile**::
quantity_point<dynamic_origin<si::dim_length>, si::kilometre, double> d = 123 * km; // ERROR
Differences To Quantity
-----------------------
Unlike `quantity`, the library provides:
- no helper aliases for quantity points, such as ``length_point``,
- no UDLs for quantity points,
- no dimension-specific concepts, such as ``LengthPoint``
(there's the dimension-agnostic `QuantityPoint`),
- a more limited set of operations on quantity points
(see the :ref:`framework/arithmetics:Quantity Points` chapter)