Dear boosters, Right now, you need to type pretty much if you want to bind, lets say to the key or value from a collection. Example: typedef std::map<int,std::string> map; bind(&map::value_type::first,_1); // bind to key bind(&map::value_type::second,_1); // bind to value I've made two utility classes, in order to lessen the amount of typing. Also, an example is provided. #include <boost/bind.hpp> #include <map> #include <string> #include <iostream> namespace boost { namespace coll { template< class coll_type> struct key { typedef typename coll_type::value_type pair; typedef typename pair::first_type result_type; result_type operator()( const pair & p) { return p.first; } }; template< class coll_type> struct val { typedef typename coll_type::value_type pair; typedef typename pair::second_type result_type; result_type operator()( const pair & p) { return p.second; } }; }} void print_int( int i) { std::cout << i << std::endl; } void print_str( const std::string & s) { std::cout << s << std::endl; } int main(int argc, char* argv[]) { typedef std::map<int,std::string> map; map m; m[1] = "one"; m[2] = "two"; m[3] = "three"; using namespace boost; using namespace boost::coll; // using key & val utility classes std::for_each( m.begin(), m.end(), bind( print_int, bind(key<map>(),_1)) ); // bind to key std::for_each( m.begin(), m.end(), bind( print_str, bind(val<map>(),_1)) ); // bind to val // how you can bind to key or value from a collection, now std::for_each( m.begin(), m.end(), bind( print_int, bind(&map::value_type::first,_1)) ); std::for_each( m.begin(), m.end(), bind( print_str, bind(&map::value_type::second,_1)) ); return 0; } Best, John