Question

I am trying to create a simple template class wherein I create an object of the template class providing a container as the template type , from my understanding of templates , this should be no problem and should be handled exactly like int or char, but it always gives me an error saying:

"template argument 1 is invalid"

Here is the line at which I encounter this error :

templateTest<(std::list<int>)> testingTheTemplate;

Here is a skeleton of the template class

template <class testType> class templateTest 
{
   /* use some iterators and print test data here */
};

What am I missing here?

Answer 1

You forgot the semicolon after the class definition:

template <class testType> class templateTest 
{

}; // <- semicolon

Also, declare your instantiation as this:

templateTest<std::list<int> > testingTheTemplate;
                       // ^^^ required space (C++03)

No parenthesis and notice the space in between.

Before C++11, << and >> are treated as operators. You must separate them in cases like this.