Why compile error with enable_if

Leonid Volnitsky picture Leonid Volnitsky · Dec 20, 2012 · Viewed 23.1k times · Source

Why this does not compile with gcc48 and clang32?

#include <type_traits>

template <int N> 
struct S {

    template<class T> 
    typename std::enable_if<N==1, int>::type
    f(T t) {return 1;};

    template<class T> 
    typename std::enable_if<N!=1, int>::type
    f(T t) {return 2;};
};

int main() {
    S<1> s1;
    return s1.f(99);
}

GCC error:

/home/lvv/p/sto/test/t.cc:12:2: error: no type named ‘type’ in ‘struct enable_if<false, int>’
  f(T t) {return 2;};
  ^

CLANG error:

/home/lvv/p/sto/test/t.cc:11:26: error: no type named 'type' in 'std::enable_if<false, int>'; 'enable_if' cannot be used to
      disable this declaration
        typename std::enable_if<N!=1, int>::type
                                ^~~~
/home/lvv/p/sto/test/t.cc:16:7: note: in instantiation of template class 'S<1>' requested here
        S<1> s1;
             ^

EDIT - SOLUTION

I've accepted answer from Charles Salvia, but for practical reasons I was not able to use workaround that was proposed (specialize on N). I found other workaround which works for me. Make enable_if depend on T:

typename std::enable_if<(sizeof(T),N==1), int>::type

Answer

Charles Salvia picture Charles Salvia · Dec 20, 2012

Because you use enable_if without using the template parameter T in your function templates. If you want to specialize for when the struct S has a certain template parameter value N, you'll need to use class template specialization.

template <int N, class Enable = void> 
struct S {  };

template <int N>
struct S<N, typename std::enable_if<N == 1>::type>
{
  ....
};