How to instantiate only part of a function template if a condition is true

Question

Is it possible to build only some part of the code given the type of the template in C++ ? It would be something lake that :

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

template<typename T>
void printType(T param)
{
    #if T == char*
        cout << "char*" << endl;
    #elif T == int
        cout << "int" << endl;
    #else
        cout << "???" << endl;
    #endif
}

int main()
{
    printType("Hello world!");
    printType(1);
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

Since C++17 there is a way to do exactly this with if-constexpr. The following compiles since clang-3.9.1, gcc-7.1.0, and recent MSVC compiler 19.11.25506 handles well too with an option /std:c++17.

#include <iostream>
#include <type_traits>

template<typename T>
void printType(T)
{
    if constexpr (std::is_same_v<T, const char*>)
        std::cout << "const char*" << std::endl;
    else if constexpr (std::is_same_v<T, int>)
        std::cout << "int" << std::endl;
    else
        std::cout << "???" << std::endl;
}

int main()
{
    printType("Hello world!");
    printType(1);
    printType(1.1);
    return 0;
}

Output:

const char*
int
???