Question

Here is the simplified problem.

template <class T>
std::string name(const T&);  // This is the template 
                             // I want to explicitly specialize.

class Outer
{
    class Inner
    {
    };

    class Container : public ::Container<Inner> // This causes also an implicit
                                                // specialization of f::name
    {
    };
};

How can I specialize

template <class T>
std::string name(const T&);

for Outer::Inner ?

I cannot declare the explicit specialization in three places I considered:

template <class T>
std::string name(const T&); 

// 1. Here I cannot forward declare a nested class

class Outer
{
    class Inner
    {
    };

    // 2. Here I get error: explicit specialization
    //    in non-namespace scope 'class Outer'

    class Container : public ::Container<Inner>
    {
    };
};

// 3. Here I get error: specialization of '...' after instantiation

How can I solve this problem?

Answer 1

Have a look at this article. You might be better off just writing a name function for the specific type you want to “specialize” for:

std::string name(const Outer::Inner&);