Exploring C++20: The Programmer's Introduction to C++

© Ray Lischner 2020

R. LischnerExploring C++20https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5961-0_52

52. Class Templates

Ray Lischner¹ 

(1)

Ellicott City, MD, USA

 

A class can be a template, which makes all of its members templates. Every program in this book has used class templates, because much of the standard library relies on templates: the standard I/O streams, strings, vectors, and maps are all class templates. This Exploration takes a look at simple class templates.

Parameterizing a Type

Consider a simple point class , which stores an x and y coordinate. A graphics device driver might use int for the member types.

class point {

public:

   point(int x, int y) : x_{x}, y_{y} {}

   int x() const { return x_; }

   int y() const { return y_; }

private:

   int x_, ...