Question

I have some weird problem with templates. When trying to pass a parameterised iterator it complains that no function can be found. The code snippet is here, forget about the functionality, it’s using the reference to the templatized iterator what interests me

#include <list> #include <iostream>  template<typename T> void print_list_element(typename std::list<T>::iterator& it){     std::cout << *it << std::endl; }  int main() {     std::list<int> theList;     theList.push_back(1);      std::list<int>::iterator it = theList.begin();     print_list_element(it);      return 0; } 

If you try to compile this with g++ v4.3.2 it complains with a message saying that:

main.cpp:14: error: no matching function for call to 'print_list_element(std::_List_iterator<int>&)' 

Is there something wrong with the code I wrote or is that g++ needs more information?

Answer 1

g++ can’t figure out which template overload of print_list_element it should use. If you explicitly specify the template parameter it works:

print_list_element<int>(it);