define non-template function outside a templated class

Question

I was learning about non-template friend function & template friend function to a templated class. So I tried the code below :

#include <iostream>   


template<typename T>
class  cl
{
private :
    T val;
public:
    cl()= default;
    explicit cl(T v) : val(std::move(v)) {}    

    friend void non_template_friend(cl m);
};

template <typename T>
void non_template_friend(cl<T> m)  { std::cout << m.val << std::endl;}


int main()
{

    cl<int> c(10);
    non_template_friend(c);
    return 0;
}

so when I compile I got : undefined reference tonon_template_friend(cl)' ` So to resolve that I have to move the friend function definition inside the class definition like so :

template<typename T>
class  cl
{
private :
    T val;
public:
    cl()= default;
    explicit cl(T v) : val(std::move(v)) {}    

    friend void non_template_friend(cl m) { std::cout << m.val << std::endl;}
};

But I was wondering,is there any trick to do to be able to define the friend fuinction outside the class definition ?

Thank you.

Answer 1

If you want the definition outside the class, it needs to be a template function since it must be able to accept any kind of c1.

You can achieve this by forward declaring both the class and the function.

#include <iostream>

template<typename T>
class  cl;

template<typename T>
void non_template_friend(cl<T> m);

template<typename T>
class  cl
{
private :
    T val;
public:
    cl()= default;
    explicit cl(T v) : val(std::move(v)) {}    

    friend void non_template_friend<T>(cl m); //Now we can refer to a specific instatiation of the template  here
};

template <typename T>
void non_template_friend(cl<T> m)  { std::cout << m.val << std::endl;}


int main()
{

    cl<int> c(10);
    non_template_friend(c);
    return 0;
}

Answer 2

In the first program

template<typename T>
class  cl
{
private :
    T val;
public:
    cl()= default;
    explicit cl(T v) : val(std::move(v)) {}    

    friend void non_template_friend(cl m);
};

template <typename T>
void non_template_friend(cl<T> m)  { std::cout << m.val << std::endl;}

You declared a non-template friend funcrion but then you declared and defined a template function with the same name/

A non-template friend function declaration means thatf you have to provide a set of overloaded non-template functions for specializations of the template class/

Here is a demonstrative program.

#include <iostream>
template<typename T>
class  cl
{
private :
    T val;
public:
    cl()= default;
    explicit cl(T v) : val(std::move(v)) {}    

    friend void non_template_friend(cl m) ;
};

void non_template_friend( cl<int> m)  { std::cout << m.val << std::endl;}
void non_template_friend( cl<double> m)  { std::cout << m.val << std::endl;}

int main() 
{
    cl<int> c(10);
    non_template_friend(c);

    cl<double> c2( 20.2 );
    non_template_friend(c2);


    return 0;
}

The program output is

10
20.2

That is in a template class a non-template friend function declaration is in fact declares a set of overloaded non-template functions.