Re: typedef in template class

From:
James Kanze <james.kanze@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:22:37 CST
Message-ID:
<de07b9a6-3e73-4c1e-bcc2-2fd42d2796ac@j13g2000pro.googlegroups.com>
On Mar 11, 7:26 pm, Jonathan Thornburg <clcppm-pos...@this.is.invalid>
wrote:

[N.b.: This is *not* a homework exercise.]

I'm encountered some strange-to-me behavior when trying to use typedefs
(defined in a template class) in other templates, and I'm wondering
if someone can point me to what's going on, i.e., why what I expected
to be legal code is being rejected by my compiler (g++ 4.2.4).

To be specific, consider the following C++ code:

    #include <complex> // 1
                                                    // 2
    template <typename fp> // 3
    class A // 4
            { // 5
    public: // 6
            typedef std::complex<fp> field; // 7
            }; // 8
                                                    // 9
    template <typename fp> // 10
    void foo() // 11
    { // 12
    typedef A<float>::field float_field; // 13
    typedef A< fp>::field fp_field; // 14


A<fp>::field is a dependent name. Since you haven't told the
compiler otherwise, it assumes that field is *not* the name of a
type nor the name of a template. (It's impossible to parse C++
without knowing which names are types, and which are templates.)
Of course, using anything but a type here is an error;
regretfully, according to the standard, the compiler is not
required to diagnose this error here. And if A<fp>::field does
happen to be a type in the actual instantiation, the behavior is
undefined. Good modern compilers will complain immediately
here, but it's a quality of implementation issue. (And there
are a number of reasons why older compilers may let the issue
ride.)

Try telling the compiler that A<fp>::field is a type:
    typedef typename A<fp:field fp_field;
and see if that doesn't improve things.

The same holds for all uses of A<fp>::field in the rest of your
code. Just add the necessary typename.

--
James Kanze

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