Depending on the used C++ standard, there are different ways to return the right return type of a function template. In this post, I start with traits (C++98), continue in my next post with C++11/14, and end with concepts (C++20).

A dependent name is essentially a name that depends on a template parameter. A dependent name can be a type, a non-type, or a template parameter. To express that a dependent name stands for a type or a template, you have to use the keywords typename or template.

A friend has unrestricted access to the members of a class. Consequently, friendship should be given wisely. Regarding templates, friendship is special.

Typically, you use the overload pattern for a std::variant. std::variant is a type-safe union. A std::variant (C++17) has one value from one of its types. std::visit allows you to apply a visitor to it. Exactly here comes the overload pattern very handy into play.

To complete my post about variadic templates and fold expressions, I present in this post smart tricks using parameter packs and fold expressions.

In my last two posts "Variadic Templates or the Power of Three Dots" and "More about Variadic Templates", I introduced variadic templates. This post goes one step further in the future and presents fold expressions that can directly reduce a parameter pack with a binary operator. 

There is a lot of power in the strange-looking three dots that are heavily used in the Standard Template Library. Today, I visualize the expansion of the three dots and show a few use cases.

A variadic template is a template that can have an arbitrary number of template parameters. This feature may seem magical to you if you see it the first time. So, let me demystify variadic templates.

Template instantiation is the creation of a concrete function or a concrete class out of a function template or class template. The creation of template instantiation can be implicit (compiler-generated) or explicit (user-provided).

As you may know from my previous post Template Specialization, function template can only be full but not partial specialized. To make my long story short: Don't specialize function templates. Just use function overloading.