Problem with making an instance of a templated operator<< a friendof a template class

[Stuart Golodetz]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to making an instance of a templated operator<< for a
templated class a friend of that class (see below), to allow it to
access the class internals for output purposes.

#include <iostream>

template <typename T>
class TC
{
friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const TC&);
};

template <typename Tstd::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const
TC<T>&)
{
return os;
}

int main()
{
TC<inttc;
std::cout << tc;
return 0;
}

Unfortunately the way I've done it is wrong: I'm referring in the above
to a non-template instance instead of a template one (the online Comeau
compiler kindly warned me about this and recommended I add <>...). This
would be ok normally, but because it's an operator I'm having trouble.
VC++ 2005 refuses (probably correctly?) to accept the following:

friend std::ostream& operator<< <>(std::ostream& os, const TC&);

Please can you tell me if I'm missing something? Is this possible for
operators (have I just messed up the syntax)?

Thanks!
Stu

[Stuart Golodetz]

Stuart Golodetz wrote:

Hi guys,

I'm trying to making an instance of a templated operator<< for a
templated class a friend of that class (see below), to allow it to
access the class internals for output purposes.

#include <iostream>

template <typename T>
class TC
{
friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const TC&);
};

template <typename Tstd::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const
TC<T>&)
{
return os;
}

int main()
{
TC<inttc;
std::cout << tc;
return 0;
}

Unfortunately the way I've done it is wrong: I'm referring in the above
to a non-template instance instead of a template one (the online Comeau
compiler kindly warned me about this and recommended I add <>...). This
would be ok normally, but because it's an operator I'm having trouble.
VC++ 2005 refuses (probably correctly?) to accept the following:

friend std::ostream& operator<< <>(std::ostream& os, const TC&);

Please can you tell me if I'm missing something? Is this possible for
operators (have I just messed up the syntax)?

Thanks!
Stu

Apologies, I've managed to solve the problem. Here's how, for the record:

#include <iostream>

template <typename Tclass TC;
template <typename Tstd::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const
TC<T>&);

template <typename T>
class TC
{
friend std::ostream& operator<< <>(std::ostream& os, const TC&);
};

template <typename Tstd::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const
TC<T>&)
{
return os;
}

int main()
{
TC<inttc;
std::cout << tc;
return 0;
}

Cheers,
Stu