Search code examples
c++variadic-templatesvariadic-functionsexplicit-instantiation

Explicitly instantiating variadic constructor: template-id does not match any template declaration


I'm trying to explicitly instantiate a variadic constructor. This minimal example to print all arguments causes the same error I'm seeing on MinGW-w64 on 64 bit Win 7 with GCC 5.3.

struct stf {
 template<typename... Args> stf(Args&&... args){
  using expand_type = int[];
  expand_type{(print(args), 0)... };
 }
};

//error on next line:
//template-id 'stf<char*, char*>' for 'stf::stf(char*, char*)'
//does not match any template declaration
template stf::stf<char*,char*>(char*,char*);

Solution

  • Let's ignore the parameter pack, for one moment:

    template<typename Arg> stf(Arg &&args)
    

    Pop quiz: which instantiation matches the above template. Is it:

    template<char *> stf(char *);
    

    or

    template<char *> stf(char *&&);
    

    ?

    If you substitute char * everywhere the template type appears in the template, you'll obviously end up with the second version as the right answer.

    Therefore, the correct template instantiation must be:

    template stf::stf<char*,char*>(char* &&,char* &&);