Question

Can C-Style strings be used as template arguments?

I tried:

template <char *str>
struct X
{
    const char *GetString() const
    {
         return str;
    }
};

int main()
{
    X<"String"> x;
    cout<<x.GetString();
}

And although I get no complaints about the class definition, the instantiation yields 'X' : invalid expression as a template argument for 'str' (VC).

Answer 1

A string literal cannot be used as a template argument.

Update: Nowadays, a few years after this question was asked and answered, it is possible to use string literals as template arguments. With C++11, we can use characters packs as template arguments (template<char ...c>) and it is possible to pass a literal string to such a template.

This would work, however:

template <char const *str>
struct X
{
    const char *GetString() const
    {
         return str;
    }
};

char global_string[] = "String";

int main()
{
    X<global_string> x;
    cout<<x.GetString();
}