I am using boost spirit to parse some text files into a data structure and now I am beginning to generate text from this data structure (using spirit karma). One attempt at a data structure is a boost::fusion::map (as suggested in an answer to this question). But although I can use boost::spirit::qi::parse() and get data in it easily, when I tried to generate text from it using karma, I failed. Below is my attempt (look especially at the "map_data" type). After some reading and playing around with other fusion types, I found boost::fusion::vector and BOOST_FUSION_DEFINE_ASSOC_STRUCT. I succeeded to generate output with both of them, but they don't seem ideal: in vector you cannot access a member using a name (it is like a tuple) -- and in the other solution, I don't think I need both ways (member name and key type) to access the members. #include <iostream> #include <string> #include <boost/spirit/include/karma.hpp> #include <boost/fusion/include/map.hpp> #include <boost/fusion/include/make_map.hpp> #include <boost/fusion/include/vector.hpp> #include <boost/fusion/include/as_vector.hpp> #include <boost/fusion/include/transform.hpp> struct sb_key; struct id_key; using boost::fusion::pair; typedef boost::fusion::map < pair<sb_key, int> , pair<id_key, unsigned long> > map_data; typedef boost::fusion::vector < int, unsigned long > vector_data; #include <boost/fusion/include/define_assoc_struct.hpp> BOOST_FUSION_DEFINE_ASSOC_STRUCT( (), assocstruct_data, (int, a, sb_key) (unsigned long, b, id_key)) namespace karma = boost::spirit::karma; template <typename X> std::string to_string ( const X& data ) { std::string generated; std::back_insert_iterator<std::string> sink(generated); karma::generate_delimited ( sink, karma::int_ << karma::ulong_, karma::space, data ); return generated; } int main() { map_data d1(boost::fusion::make_map<sb_key, id_key>(234, 35314988526ul)); vector_data d2(boost::fusion::make_vector(234, 35314988526ul)); assocstruct_data d3(234,35314988526ul); std::cout << "map_data as_vector: " << boost::fusion::as_vector(d1) << std::endl; //std::cout << "map_data to_string: " << to_string(d1) << std::endl; //*FAIL No 1* std::cout << "at_key (sb_key): " << boost::fusion::at_key<sb_key>(d1) << boost::fusion::at_c<0>(d1) << std::endl << std::endl; std::cout << "vector_data: " << d2 << std::endl; std::cout << "vector_data to_string: " << to_string(d2) << std::endl << std::endl; std::cout << "assoc_struct as_vector: " << boost::fusion::as_vector(d3) << std::endl; std::cout << "assoc_struct to_string: " << to_string(d3) << std::endl; std::cout << "at_key (sb_key): " << boost::fusion::at_key<sb_key>(d3) << d3.a << boost::fusion::at_c<0>(d3) << std::endl; return 0; } Including the commented line gives lots of pages of compilation errors, among which notably something like: no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘boost::fusion::pair’ to ‘double’ no known conversion for argument 1 from ‘boost::fusion::pair’ to ‘float’ Might it be that to_string needs the values of the map_data, and not the pairs? Though I am not good with templates, I tried to get a vector from a map using transform in the following way template <typename P> struct take_second { typename P::second_type operator() (P p) { return p.second; } }; // ... inside main() pair <char, int> ff(32); std::cout << "take_second (expect 32): " << take_second<pair<char,int>>()(ff) << std::endl; std::cout << "transform map_data and to_string: " << to_string(boost::fusion::transform(d1, take_second<>())); //*FAIL No 2* But I don't know what types am I supposed to give when instantiating take_second and anyway I think there must be an easier way to get (iterate over) the values of a map (is there?) If you answer this question, please also give your opinion on whether using an ASSOC_STRUCT or a map is better.