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Template Metaprogramming with C++

You're reading from   Template Metaprogramming with C++ Learn everything about C++ templates and unlock the power of template metaprogramming

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Product type Paperback
Published in Aug 2022
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781803243450
Length 480 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Languages
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Author (1):
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Marius Bancila Marius Bancila
Author Profile Icon Marius Bancila
Marius Bancila
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Table of Contents (16) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Part 1: Core Template Concepts
2. Chapter 1: An Introduction to Templates FREE CHAPTER 3. Chapter 2: Template Fundamentals 4. Chapter 3: Variadic Templates 5. Part 2: Advanced Template Features
6. Chapter 4: Advanced Template Concepts 7. Chapter 5: Type Traits and Conditional Compilation 8. Chapter 6: Concepts and Constraints 9. Part 3: Applied Templates
10. Chapter 7: Patterns and Idioms 11. Chapter 8: Ranges and Algorithms 12. Chapter 9: The Ranges Library 13. Assignment Answers 14. Other Books You May Enjoy Appendix: Closing Notes

Understanding template instantiation

As mentioned before, templates are only blueprints from which the compiler creates actual code when it encounters their use. The act of creating a definition for a function, a class, or a variable from the template declaration is called template instantiation. This can be either explicit, when you tell the compiler when it should generate a definition, or implicit, when the compiler generates a new definition as needed. We will look at these two forms in detail in the next sections.

Implicit instantiation

Implicit instantiation occurs when the compiler generates definitions based on the use of templates and when no explicit instantiation is present. Implicitly instantiated templates are defined in the same namespace as the template. However, the way compilers create definitions from templates may differ. This is something we will see in the following example. Let's consider this code:

template <typename T>
struct foo
{
 ...
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