My code looks fine. Why am I getting a “error: expected primary-expression before ')' token”?

Question

Error on the denoted line below. What gives?

template <class T> T List<T>::count(T thisElement) { 
    node* curNodePtr = firstNodePtr;
    int cnt = 0;
    while (curNodePtr) { 
        if (curNodePtr->val == T) // error: expected primary-expression before ')'
            ++cnt;
        curNodePtr = curNodePtr->next;
    }
    return cnt;
}

Answer 1

template <class T> T List<T>::count(T thisElement) { 

First of all, if you write a count method, I guess, that you rather want to return an int rather than T , so this line should look like this:

template <class T> int List<T>::count(T thisElement) { 

Let's go on...

    if (curNodePtr->val == T) 

I'm sure you wanted to write something like:

    if (curNodePtr->val == thisElement) 

T is a type. If you later specialize your class with, say, int , your code line would become:

    if (curNodePtr->val == int) 

This is why compiler complains.

Answer 2

Why am I getting a “error: expected primary-expression before ')' token”?

Because T is a type. You need to compare to an instance. For example, T() .

if (curNodePtr->val == T()) ....
                        ^^

Besides that, you have to make sure your function actually does something sensible. That is another matter.