Regarding templates for struct in C++

Question

Method 1:

 template <class T>
 struct node{
      T data;
      struct node *next;
 };

Method 2:

 template <class T>
 struct node{
      T data;
      struct node<T> *next; // different from above
 };

Both of them compiles and runs correctly for a linked list.

Isn't there a difference? If not, why?

Answer 1

There is no difference.

The reason that this is so is because, for convenience, within a templated class/struct, the naked name of that class/struct refers to the current template instantiation.

This feature becomes really handy if you have, say, six templated arguments that themselves have templated arguments, and you just want to declare a pointer :-)