Question

When I’ve got a template with certain type parameters, is it allowed for a function to return an object of this same template, but with different types? In other words, is the following allowed?

template<class edgeDecor, class vertexDecor, bool dir>
Graph<edgeDecor,int,dir> Graph<edgeDecor,vertexDecor,dir>::Dijkstra(vertex s, bool 
print = false) const
{
    /* Construct new Graph with apropriate decorators */
    Graph<edgeDecor,int,dir> span = new Graph<edgeDecor,int,dir>();    

    /* ... */

    return span;
};

If this is not allowed, how can I accomplish the same kind of thing?

Answer 1

Allowed. Some corrections to your code sample:

template<class edgeDecor, class vertexDecor, bool dir>
Graph<edgeDecor,int,dir> *Graph<edgeDecor,vertexDecor,dir>::Dijkstra(vertex s, bool 
print = false) const
{
    /* Construct new Graph with apropriate decorators */
    Graph<edgeDecor,int,dir> *span = new Graph<edgeDecor,int,dir>();    

    /* ... */

    return span;
};