Question

Is there a straightforward way for defining a partial specialization of a C++ template class given a numerical constant for one of the template parameters? I’m trying to create special constructors for only certain kinds of template combinations:

template <typename A, size_t B> class Example
{
    public:
        Example() { };

        A value[B];
};

template <typename A, 2> class Example
{
    public:
        Example(b1, b2) { value[0] = b1; value[1] = b2; };
};

This example won’t compile, returning an error Expected identifier before numeric constant in the second definition.

I’ve had a look through a number of examples here and elsewhere, but most seem to revolve around specializing with a type and not with a constant.

Edit:

Looking for a way to write a conditionally used constructor, something functionally like this:

template <typename A, size_t B> class Example
{
    public:
        // Default constructor
        Example() { };

        // Specialized constructor for two values
        Example<A,2>(A b1, A b2) { value[0] = b1; value[1] = b2; };

        A foo() {
          A r;

          for (size_t i = 0; i < b; ++b)
            r += value[i];

          return r;
        }

        // Hypothetical specialized implementation
        A foo<A, 2>() {
          return value[0] + value[1];
        }

        A value[B];
};

Answer 1

I think this might work:

#include <iostream>

template <typename A, size_t B>
class Example {
public:
    Example()
    {
        Construct<B>(identity<A, B>());
    }

    A foo()
    {
        return foo<B>(identity<A, B>());
    }

private:
    template <typename A, size_t B>
    struct identity {};

    template <size_t B>
    void Construct(identity<A, B> id)
    {
        for (size_t i = 0; i < B; ++i)
        {
            value[i] = 0;
        }
        std::cout << "default constructor\n";
    }

    template <size_t B>
    void Construct(identity<A, 2> id)
    {
        value[0] = 0;
        value[1] = 0;
        std::cout << "special constructor\n";
    }

    template <size_t B>
    A foo(identity<A, B> id)
    {
        A r = 0;
        for (size_t i = 0; i < B; ++i)
        {
            r += value[i];
        }
        std::cout << "default foo\n";
        return r;
    }

    template <size_t B>
    A foo(identity<A, 2> id)
    {
        std::cout << "special foo\n";
        return value[0] + value[1];
    }

    A value[B];
};

int main()
{
    Example<int, 2> example; // change the 2 to see the difference
    int n = example.foo();
    std::cin.get();
    return 0;
}

Sorry, I just copy and pasted it from my test project. It’s not really “specialization” in a way, it just calls overloads to specialized functions. I’m not sure if this is what you want and imo this isn’t very elegant.