Tuesday, 3 October 2017

c++ - Difference of keywords 'typename' and 'class' in templates?



For templates I have seen both declarations:




template < typename T >
template < class T >


What's the difference?



And what exactly do those keywords mean in the following example (taken from the German Wikipedia article about templates)?



template < template < typename, typename > class Container, typename Type >
class Example

{
Container< Type, std::allocator < Type > > baz;
};

Answer



typename and class are interchangeable in the basic case of specifying a template:



template
class Foo
{

};


and



template
class Foo
{
};



are equivalent.



Having said that, there are specific cases where there is a difference between typename and class.



The first one is in the case of dependent types. typename is used to declare when you are referencing a nested type that depends on another template parameter, such as the typedef in this example:



template
class Foo
{

typedef typename param_t::baz sub_t;
};


The second one you actually show in your question, though you might not realize it:



template < template < typename, typename > class Container, typename Type >


When specifying a template template, the class keyword MUST be used as above -- it is not interchangeable with typename in this case (note: since C++17 both keywords are allowed in this case).




You also must use class when explicitly instantiating a template:



template class Foo;


I'm sure that there are other cases that I've missed, but the bottom line is: these two keywords are not equivalent, and these are some common cases where you need to use one or the other.


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