lo tolmencre
lo tolmencre

Reputation: 3954

templated template specialization?

Say I want to write a wrapper for 2 or more classes that do the same things with different implementations and their interfaces have different function names. Depending on the context I would choose the one or the other, but I want to be able to easily switch them out. SO I write a wrapper with template specialization. Ok good. Now however I encountered a problem. My 2 classes are template classes...

If they were normal classes I could write code like this:

class A1
{
public:
    int f()
    {
        return 1;
    }
};

class A2
{
public:
    int g()
    {
        return 1;
    }
};


namespace detail
{
    template <class T> int h(T& t)  // general case
    {
        std::cout << "general" << "\n";
        return t.h();
    }
    template <> int h<A1>(A1& a1)     // case for A1
    {
        std::cout << "A1" << "\n";
        return a1.f();
    }
    template <> int h<A2>(A2& a2)     // case for A2
    {
        std::cout << "A2" << "\n";
        return a2.g();
    }
}

template <class T>
class Wrapper
{
public:
    Wrapper(T& t) : t(t) {}

    int operator()()
    {
        return detail::h<T>(t);
    }

    T& t;
};

However, how would I need to modify that code to make it run for tempalted versions of A1 and A2? The best I came up with was this (does not compile):

template <class T>
class A1
{
public:
    int f()
    {
        return 1;
    }
};

template <class T>
class A2
{
public:
    int g()
    {
        return 1;
    }
};


namespace detail
{
    template <class T, class U> int h(T<U>& t)    // general case
    {
        return t.h();
    }
    template <> int h<A1<U>>(A1<U>& a1)     // case for A1
    {
        return a1.f();
    }
    template <> int h<A2<U>>(A2<U>& a1)     // case for A2
    {
        return a1.f();
    }
}

template <class T, class U>
class Wrapper
{
public:
    Wrapper(T<U>& t) : t(t) {}

    int operator()()
    {
        return detail::h<T,U>(t);
    }

    T<U>& t;
};

So, I somehow need to template the template specializations, which sounds like a contradiction.

edit

Ok.. trying to make the overload solution work, but I don't really get it...

template <template <typename> class T, class  U>
class Wrapper
{
public:
    Wrapper(T<U>& t) : t(t) {}

    template <template <typename> class T, typename U>
    int h(T<U>& t)    // general case
    {
        return t.h();
    }

    template <typename U>
    int h(A1<U>& a1)     // case for A1
    {
        return a1.f();
    }
    template <typename U>
    int h(A2<U>& a2)     // case for A2
    {
        return a2.g();
    }

    T<U>& t;
};

Upvotes: 1

Views: 74

Answers (1)

Aconcagua
Aconcagua

Reputation: 25536

Prefer overload to template specialisation:

template <template <typename> class T, typename U>
int h(T<U>& t)    // general case
{
    return t.h();
}

template <typename T>
int h(A1<T>& a1)     // case for A1
{
    return a1.f();
}
template <typename T>
int h(A2<T>& a2)     // case for A2
{
    return a2.g();
}

Upvotes: 4

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