Certain template functions in non-template class

Question

I'm trying to create a class, which will contain two pairs of template functions: one for char and one for wchar_t. I wrote the following code, but it couldn't be built because linker cannot find realizations of functions. I think the problem is that linker thinks the functions in the class are not the instantiations of template ones.

How can I define the functions needed?

template<typename T>
int func1(const T* szTarget)
{
  ...
}

template<typename T>
T* func2(const T* szTarget)
{
  ...
}

class MyClass
{
public:
  int func1(const char* szTarget);
  int func1(const wchar_t* szTarget);
  char* func2(const char* szTarget);
  wchar_t* func2(const wchar_t* szTarget);
};

Answer 1

Actually you're defining two template function outside the scope of your class, they are not related with your class by any way.

So why not just :

class MyClass
{
public:
  template<typename T>
  int func1(const T* szTarget)
 {
    /* ... */
  }

  template<typename T>
  T* func2(const T* szTarget)
  {
    /* ... */
  }
};

By the way, you should experiment with scopes and naming to understand it a bit: http://ideone.com/65Mef5

Answer 2

What about

class MyClass {
public:
  template<typename T>
  int func1(T* szTarget) {
     // provide appropriate implementation
  }
  template<typename T>
  char* func2(T* szTarget) {
     // provide appropriate implementation
  }
};

Answer 3

The compiler is right.

You have to declare the template functions as members of the class. Which means they need to be declared inside the class declaration.

class MyClass
{
public:
template<typename T>
int func1(const T* szTarget)
{
  ...
}

template<typename T>
T* func2(const T* szTarget)
{
  ...
}
template <> int func1(const char* szTarget) { } //specialization
template <> int func1(const wchar_t* szTarget) { } //specialization
template <> char* func2(const char* szTarget) { } //specialization
template <> wchar_t*func2(const wchar_t* szTarget) { } //specialization

};

Answer 4

You haven't defined any templated methods in your class. One way of doing it is as follows:

class MyClass
{
public:
  template <typename T> int func1(const T* szTarget);
  template <typename T> T* func2(const T* szTarget);
};

template<typename T>
int MyClass::func1<T>(const T* szTarget)
{
  ...
}

template<typename T>
T* MyClass::func2<T>(const T* szTarget)
{
  ...
}