THINK++ — Engineering Visualized

Generic Logic

Function Templates

Allows you to write a single function that can work with different data types, provided they support the operations used inside the function.

THE GENERIC SWAP

template <typename T>
void genericSwap(T &a, T &b) {
    T temp = a;
    a = b;
    b = temp;
}

int x = 5, y = 10; genericSwap(x, y);
string s1 = "A", s2 = "B"; genericSwap(s1, s2);

TYPE INFERENCE

The compiler can often deduce T automatically from the arguments you pass.

MULTI-TYPE

You can use multiple template parameters: template <typename T, typename U>.

Explicit Instantiation

If the compiler can't deduce the type, you can specify it manually:

genericSwap<int>(x, y);

Loading Lab...