Templates and Friends
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Templates and Friends
Like inheritance, templates or their specializations are compatible with friendship feature of C++
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Templates and Friends Rule 1
When an ordinary function or class is declared as friend of a class template then it becomes friend of each instantiation of that template
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Templates and Friends Rule 1
void doSomething( B< char >& ); class A { }; template< class T > class B { int data; friend void doSomething( B<char>& ); friend A; http://ecomputernotes.com };
Templates and Friends Rule 1
void doSomething( B< char >& cb ) { B< int > ib; ib.data = 5; // OK cb.data = 6; // OK }
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Templates and Friends Rule 1
class A { void method() { B< int > ib; B< char > cb ib.data = 5; // OK cb.data = 6; // OK } };
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Templates and Friends Rule 2
When a friend function / class template is instantiated with the type parameters of class template granting friendship then its instantiation for a specific type is a friend of that class template instantiation for that particular type
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Templates and Friends Rule 2
template< class U > void doSomething( U ); template< class V > class A { }; template< class T > class B { int data; friend void doSomething( T ); friend A< T >; };
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Templates and Friends Rule 2
template< class U > void doSomething( U u ) { B< U > ib; ib.data = 78; }
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Templates and Friends Rule 2
int main() { int i = 5; char c = x; doSomething( i ); doSomething( c ); return 0; }
// OK // OK
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Templates and Friends Rule 2
template< class U > void doSomething( U u ) { B< int > ib; ib.data = 78; }
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Templates and Friends Rule 2
int main() { int i = 5; char c = x; doSomething( i ); doSomething( c ); return 0; }
// OK // Error!
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Templates and Friends Rule 2
Because doSomething() always instantiates
B< int > class B< int > { int data; friend void doSomething( int ); friend A< int >; };
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Templates and Friends Rule 2
template< class T > class A { void method() { B< char > cb; cb.data = 8; B< int > ib; ib.data = 9; } };
// Error!
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Templates and Friends Rule 3
When a friend function / class template takes different type parameters from the class template granting friendship then its each instantiation is a friend of each instantiation of the class template granting friendship
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Templates and Friends Rule 3
template< class U > void doSomething( U ); template< class V > class A { }; template< class T > class B { int data; template< class W > friend void doSomething( W ); template< class S > friend class A; http://ecomputernotes.com };
Templates and Friends Rule 3
template< class U > void doSomething( U u ) { B< int > ib; ib.data = 78; }
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Templates and Friends Rule 3
int main() { int i = 5; char c = x; doSomething( i ); doSomething( c ); return 0; }
// OK // OK
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Templates and Friends Rule 3
template< class T > class A { void method() { B< char > cb; cb.data = 8; B< int > ib; ib.data = 9; } };
// OK!
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Templates and Friends Rule 4
Declaring a template as friend implies that all kinds of its specializations explicit, implicit and partial, are also friends of the class granting friendship
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Templates and Friends Rule 4
template< class T > class B { T data; template< class U > friend class A; };
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Templates and Friends Rule 4
template< class U > class A { A() { B< int > ib; ib.data = 10; } };
// OK
Templates and Friends Rule 4
template< class U > class A< U* > { A() { B< int > ib; ib.data = 10; } };
// OK
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Templates and Friends Rule 4
template< class T > class B { T data; template< class U > friend void doSomething( U ); };
Templates and Friends Rule 4
template< class U > void doSomething( U u ) { B< int > ib; ib.data = 56; // OK }
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Templates and Friends Rule 4
template< > void doSomething< char >( char u ) { B< int > ib; ib.data = 56; // OK }
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