Templates - overview

Templates in C++ provide for compile-time parametrization of functions and classes

Templates correspond to generic types and generic methods in Java and C#

Template parameters
- Types
- Values of template types
- Constants of integer types
- Pointer to an object, a pointer to function, or pointer to a member
- It is not possible to pass, doubles, floats, or string constants as a template arguments
Template specialization
- It is possible to define several specializations (variants) of a template distinguished by a 'formal type parameter pattern'
- Can, for instance, be used to provide a shared template for all pointer types
- Both for class and function templates