Re: Conversion error in template specialization

From:
"Matthias Hofmann" <hofmann@anvil-soft.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Sat, 12 May 2007 05:54:42 CST
Message-ID:
<5albhhF2oke5aU1@mid.individual.net>
"Matt Messina" <messina@yahoo.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:1178923124.895884.241500@h2g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

"Matt Messina" <messina@yahoo.com> schrieb im
Newsbeitragnews:1178836058.052582.81610@q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...

Why not overload minimum() instead?
  template<size_t N1, size_t N2> inline
  const char* minimum(const char (&a)[N1], const char (&b)[N2])


Matthias Hofmann <hofmann@anvil-soft.com> wrote:

On VC++ 2005 Express Edition, I get an ambiguity error if I overload
minimum() as you suggested and call it on two character arrays of 2 bytes

The code only compiles if the arrays ar *not* of identical size. And I


Good point. The problem is that neither overload is more specialized.
The solution, as always, is to provide a disambiguating overload that
is
more specialized than either.

  template<class size_t N> inline
  const char* minimum(const char (&a)[N], const char(&b)[N])
  { /*...*/ }

Ironically, adding this overload on Sun Workshop 5.8 causes an
ambiguity compile error where there was none before. Good thing
we have a preprocessor.


The disambiguation overload works! :-) Here's the complete (?) list of
overloads necessary for minimum() to work with C-style strings:

// Primary template.
template <class T> inline
const T& minimum( const T& a, const T& b )
{
     return a < b ? a : b;
}

// Spezialization for arrays
// of identical size.
template<size_t N> inline
const char* minimum( const char (&a)[N],
                     const char(&b)[N] )
{
     return std::strcmp( a, b ) < 0 ? a : b;
}

// Spezialization for arrays
// of different size.
template<size_t N1, size_t N2> inline
const char* minimum( const char (&a)[N1],
                     const char (&b)[N2] )
{
     return std::strcmp( a, b ) < 0 ? a : b;
}

// Spezialization for non-const pointers.
template <> inline
char* const& minimum( char* const& a,
                      char* const& b )
{
     return std::strcmp( a, b ) < 0 ? a : b;
}

// Spezialization for const pointers.
template <> inline
const char* const& minimum( const char* const& a,
                            const char* const& b )
{
     return std::strcmp( a, b ) < 0 ? a : b;
}

By the way, I have a question concerning these two spezializations:

template<size_t N> inline
const char* minimum( const char (&a)[N],
                     const char(&b)[N] );

template<size_t N1, size_t N2> inline
const char* minimum( const char (&a)[N1],
                     const char (&b)[N2] );

Are these spezializations *partial* ones? They have a template parameter
list, like partial spezializations do, but the parameters are only used to
specify the *size* of the arrays, not their *type* - or is the size of an
array part of its type?

--
Matthias Hofmann
Anvil-Soft, CEO
http://www.anvil-soft.com - The Creators of Toilet Tycoon
http://www.anvil-soft.de - Die Macher des Klomanagers

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