Practical C++

Chapter 26. Using Templates

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• Implement generic programming with templates

• Create and use function and class templates

• Understand how to use template parameters

• Convert existing classes into class templates

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Conceptualizing Templates

The introduction of experimental templates into C++ in the late 1980s was a major breakthrough for the language. After a decade of experimentation, modification, and fine-tuning, templates have become firmly rooted in the Standard C++ Library. Templates provide the basis of generic programming in C++ and make possible the Standard Template Library, one of the major features of the Standard C++ Library.

For years I wrote off templates as being just another programming trick that I could do without, but ...