C++ for Scientists - Technische Universität Dresden

106 CHAPTER 4. GENERIC PROGRAMMING
template
class vector
{
...
};
That will do the trick. Pay attention to put a space between the closing ‘¿’; otherwise the
compiler will take two subsequent ‘¿’ as shift operator ‘¿¿’ and becomes pretty confused. 14
This also works for classes with multiple parameters, for instance:
template
class vector
{
...
};
We can also specialize for all pointers:
template
class vector
{
...
};
Whenever the set of types is expressible by a Type Pattern we can apply partial specialization
on it.
Partial template specialization can be combined with regular template specialization from § 4.6.1
— let us call it ‘Complete Specialization’ for distinction. In this case, the complete specialization
is prioritized over the partial one. Between different partial specializations the most specific is
selected. In the following example:
template
class vector
{
...
};
template
class vector
{
...
};
the second specialization is more specific than the first one and picked when matches. In this
sense a complete specialization is always more specific than a partial one.
4.6.4 Partially Specializing Functions
The C ++ standard committee distinguishes between explicit specialization as in the first paragraph
of § 4.6.2 and implicit specialization. An example for implicit specialization is the following
computation of a value’s magnitude:
14 In the next (new depending on publication date) standard, closing ‘¿’ without intermediate spaces. Some
compilers — e.g., VS 2008 already support the conglutinated notation today.