Is there a way to use template specialization to separate new from new[]?

Question

I have an auto pointer class and in the constructor I am passing in a pointer. I want to be able to separate new from new[] in the constructor so that I can properly call delete or delete[] in the destructor. Can this be done through template specialization? I don't want to have to pass in a boolean in the constructor.

    template <typename T>
    class MyAutoPtr
    {
    public:
      MyAutoPtr(T* aPtr);
    };

// in use:
MyAutoPtr<int> ptr(new int);
MyAutoPtr<int> ptr2(new int[10]);

Answer 1

Unfortunately, no. Both return the same type, T*. Consider using builder functions that call an appropriate overloaded constructor:

template <typename T>
class MyAutoPtr
{
public:
    MyAutoPtr(T* aPtr, bool array = false);
};

template <typename T>
MyAutoPtr<T> make_ptr() {
    return MyAutoPtr<T>(new T(), false);
}

template <typename T>
MyAutoPtr<T> make_ptr(size_t size) {
    return MyAutoPtr<T>(new T[size], true);
}

Now you can instantiate objects as follows:

MyAutoPtr<int> ptr = make_ptr<int>();
MyAutoPtr<int> ptr2 = make_ptr<int>(10);