Function template in Derived class - is this the only solution

Hi

I have the following code:

//File1.h
class Base
{
public:
        virtual void foo() = 0;

};

//File2.h
#include "File1.h"
#include "OtherClass.h"

class Derived : public Base
{
public:
        void foo()
        {
                //code here
        }

        template<typename T>
        T get(int i)
        {
                T t = T();
                return mpOtherClass.get(i, t);
        }

private:
        OtherClass* mpOtherClass;
};

//main file
int main()
{
        Base* d = new Derived();

        double db2 = d->get<double>(10); //Gives compile error
        double db2 = static_cast<Derived*>(d)->get<double>(10); //OK
        return 0;
}

My question is: Is this the best possible solution? I cannot place the
function template in the base class since it is an abstract class and
will have no idea what the private data objects are to be.

thanks

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