Re: template type only known at runtime

From:
Ralf Goertz <r_goertz@expires-2006-11-30.arcornews.de>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:16:24 +0100
Message-ID:
<49240399$0$31865$9b4e6d93@newsspool3.arcor-online.net>
Hendrik Schober wrote:

Ralf Goertz wrote:

Hi,

I want to do able to declare an object bar of a templated class foo
where the actual template type of foo is only know at runtime:


  If the type is only known at run-time, you need run-time
  polymorphy, which is done using virtual functions and
  inheritance. However, that doesn't mean you can't use
  templates at all:

  class foo_base {
   public: virtual void do_something_depending_on_type_of_T() = 0; };
    virtual void do_something_depending_on_type_of_T() = 0;
  };

  template< typename T >
  class foo : public foo_base {
   public:
    virtual void do_something_depending_on_type_of_T() {}
 };


Actually, I just need two different types for the template,
foo<std::string> and foo<int>. The only difference is the id type I get
from a database, it can be either integer or char and is known only at
runtime. If it is numeric I still have to do some calculations with it
(so I can't just sql-cast it to char and use std::string in my program).
Also, the way of writing back the data to the db differs because of
quoting. "id" must be part of the class as I also need it for
std::map<T,double> within class foo. But wrapping it in another template
function as you also suggested seems to be the way to go.

Thanks for the ternary ?: suggestion in the other posting!

Ralf

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