unable to match function/method definition

Question

I'm trying to implement a templated class that contains a templated method.

template <class T1, class T2, class T3, class T4>
class ReferenceXML
{
public:
template <class T>
static tinyxml2::XMLElement* addChildAtEnd
(
    tinyxml2::XMLElement* parent,
    const std::string& name,
    const T& value
);

}; // end class definition 


template<class T>
template < class T1, class T2, class T3, class T4>
tinyxml2::XMLElement* ReferenceXML<T1,T2,T3,T4>::addChildAtEnd(
    tinyxml2::XMLElement* parent,
    const std::string& name,
    const T& value
)
{
    tinyxml2::XMLElement* element = addChildAtEnd( parent, name );
    if ( element == NULL )
    {
        return NULL;
    }
    std::stringstream ss;
    ss << value;
    tinyxml2::XMLText* value_ptr = element->GetDocument()->NewText( ss.str().c_str() );
    element->InsertFirstChild( value_ptr );
    return element;
}

The error I'm getting is the following : 1>c:\projects\ufm_integration_adtf\trunk\testfilters\xmlexporter\sources\xmlexporter_ref_objdesc\sources\referencexml.h(278): error C2244: 'ReferenceXML::addChildAtEnd' : unable to match function definition to an existing declaration

1> definition

1> 'tinyxml2::XMLElement *ReferenceXML::addChildAtEnd(tinyxml2::XMLElement *,const std::string &,const T &)'

1> existing declarations

1> 'tinyxml2::XMLElement *ReferenceXML::addChildAtEnd(tinyxml2::XMLElement *,const std::string &,const T &,const std::string &)'

1> 'tinyxml2::XMLElement *ReferenceXML::addChildAtEnd(tinyxml2::XMLElement *,const std::string &,const T &)' 1> 'tinyxml2::XMLElement *ReferenceXML::addChildAtEnd(tinyxml2::XMLElement *,tinyxml2::XMLElement *)' 1> 'tinyxml2::XMLElement *ReferenceXML::addChildAtEnd(tinyxml2::XMLElement *,const std::string &)'

I don't understand why the definition doesn't get matched to one of the existing declarations, can anyone help ? Thank you.

Answer 1

Just swapping the templates in the definition seems to fix the issue:

template < class T1, class T2, class T3, class T4>
template < class T >
XMLElement* ReferenceXML<T1,T2,T3,T4>::addChildAtEnd(

That way, the template order in your declaration matches your definition.