return a generic function with specified type

Question

What if I have a generic class with type T and I have a function which returns with T. and I want my function to return a specific string if the typeid(T) == typedef(string)?

template<class T>
class Class1
{
public:
    Class1();
    ~Class1();
    T func();
};


template <class T>
T Class1<T>::func()
{
    string d = "T = string";
    if (typeid(string) == typeid(T))
        return (T)d; <-- here I got the problem
}

Answer 1

Here's an example of explicit specialization of a member function of a class template:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

template<class T>
class Class1
{
public:
    Class1() {}
    ~Class1() {}
    T func();
};


template <class T>
T Class1<T>::func()
{
    std::cout << "non-specialized version\n";
    return T();
}

template<>
std::string Class1<std::string>::func()
{
    std::cout << "string version\n";
    return "woot";
}

int main()
{
    Class1<int>().func();
    Class1<std::string>().func();
}