template
Syntax:
template <class data-type> return-type name( parameter-list ) {
statement-list;
}
Templates are used to create generic functions and can operate on data without knowing the nature of that data. They accomplish this by using a placeholder data-type for which many other data types can be substituted.
Example code:
For example, the following code uses a template to define a generic swap function that can swap two variables of any type:
template<class X> void genericSwap( X &a, X &b ) {
X tmp;
tmp = a;
a = b;
b = tmp;
}
int main(void) {
...
int num1 = 5;
int num2 = 21;
cout << "Before, num1 is " << num1 << " and num2 is " << num2 << endl;
genericSwap( num1, num2 );
cout << "After, num1 is " << num1 << " and num2 is " << num2 << endl;
char c1 = 'a';
char c2 = 'z';
cout << "Before, c1 is " << c1 << " and c2 is " << c2 << endl;
genericSwap( c1, c2 );
cout << "After, c1 is " << c1 << " and c2 is " << c2 << endl;
...
return( 0 );
}
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