Deducing template argument for nested template fails

Question

Ok, I read throught quite some “could not deduce template argument” questions but none seems to match my case — or I don't understand the answer…

There's one that I feel goes in the right direction, but I failed extracting the solution for my problem.

The stripped down code in my header looks like this:

template<typename T>
class TemplateProblem
{
public:
    // Do I really need this or did I miss something from the STL?
    template<typename Tin, typename Tout>
    struct UnaryFunction : public std::unary_function<Tin, Tout>
    {
        virtual Tout operator()(Tin input) = 0;
    };

    template<typename Tin, typename Tout>
    struct StaticCast : public UnaryFunction<Tin, Tout>
    {
        virtual Tout operator()(Tin input)
        {
            return static_cast<Tout>(input);
        }
    };

private:
    T * const _data;
    T const _bias;

    template<typename Tin>
    void Init(Tin * data, int length, UnaryFunction<Tin, T> mapper, Tin bias);

public:
    template<typename Tin>
    TemplateProblem(Tin * data, int length, Tin bias = Tin());

    template<typename Tin>
    TemplateProblem(Tin * data, int length, UnaryFunction<Tin, T> mapper, Tin bias = T());
};

template<typename T>
template<typename Tin>
void TemplateProblem<T>::Init(Tin * data, int length, UnaryFunction<Tin, T> mapper, Tin bias)
{
    T mappedBias = mapper(bias);
    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
    {
        _data[i] = data[i] + mappedBias;
    }
}

template<typename T>
template<typename Tin>
TemplateProblem<T>::TemplateProblem(Tin * data, int length, UnaryFunction<Tin, T> mapper, Tin bias = T())
    : _data(new T[length]), _bias(bias)
{
    Init(data, length, mapper, bias);
}

template<typename T>
template<typename Tin>
TemplateProblem<T>::TemplateProblem(Tin * data, int length, Tin bias = T())
    : _data(new T[length]), _bias(bias)
{
    StaticCast<Tin, T> cast;
    Init(data, length, cast, bias);
}

I instantiate it like this:

unsigned char pixels[] = {23, 42, 65, 97};
TemplateProblem<int> tp(pixels, 4);

From VS2012 I get these messages:

Error   1   error C2784: 'void TemplateProblem<T>::Init(Tin *,int,TemplateProblem<T>::UnaryFunction<Tin,T>,Tin)' : could not deduce template argument for 'TemplateProblem<T>::UnaryFunction<Tin,T>' from 'TemplateProblem<T>::StaticCast<Tin,Tout>'    ...\templateproblem.h   62  1   TemplateProblem
Error   2   error C2893: Failed to specialize function template 'void TemplateProblem<T>::Init(Tin *,int,TemplateProblem<T>::UnaryFunction<Tin,T>,Tin)' ...\templateproblem.h   62  1   TemplateProblem

The error also occurs when I move the two structs out of the class as this answer suggests.

Answer 1

The compiler error is not very helpful in indicating the actual problem.

The actual problem is that you pass UnaryFunction<Tin, T> by value to your Init function (and one of the constructors), but all instantiations of UnaryFunction<> result in an abstract class (which can not be passed by value). The easy solution is to use pass-by-reference for UnaryFunction, so that mapper refers to the actual object passed in.

The typical solution in the STL for passing functors is to use a separate template argument, like this:

template<typename T>
template<typename Tin, Tmapper>
void TemplateProblem<T>::Init(Tin * data, int length, Tmapper mapper, Tin bias)
{
    T mappedBias = mapper(bias);
    for (int i = 0; i < length; i++)
    {
        _data[i] = data[i] + mappedBias;
    }
}

Then you don't need the UnaryFunctionL<> base class. If an incompatible mapper is passed, this will be diagnosed when it is used in the body of the function.