Is this a template specialization?

Question

template <int parameter> class MyClass

is the above a template specialization? I don't think so but I'm unsure of it, I didn't know templates could receive arguments as functions.. where do their arguments get stored?

Where do the arguments get stored? In RAM. During compilation. — Lightness Races in Orbit, Mar 02 '13 at 09:25

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 02 '13 at 09:24

Template parameters do not necessarily need to be type names: they can be numbers as well. For example, std::array takes a parameter of type size_t for the array size.

In your case, the class template takes a parameter of type int, which is entirely OK. Here is an example of how you can use such a parameter:

template <int param> struct MyClass {
    int array[param]; // param is a compile-time constant.
};
int main() {
    MyClass<5> m;
    m.array[3] = 8; // indexes 0..4 are allowed.
    return 0;
}

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 02 '13 at 09:21

Their arguments are stored within their type information.

No, that is not a template specialization. Have a look at this:

template <int, int> class MyClass;         // <-- primary template
template <int>      class MyClass<int, 4>; // <-- partial specialization
template <>         class MyClass<5, 4>;   // <-- specialization

Is this a template specialization?

2 Answers2