Is there real static polymorphism in C++?

Question

Here is a simple code in C++:

#include 
#include 

template
void function()
{
   std::cout << typeid(T).n         


        

Answer 1

While it can be argued that the example in the OP does not exhibit static polymorphism, the use of specialization can make a more compelling case:

template
class Base
{
public:
      int a() { return 7; }
};

template<>
class Base
{
public:
      int a() { return 42; }
};

template<>
class Base
{
public:
      int a() { return 121; }
};

We see here that for most classes a() will return 7; The specialized (derived) instanciations for int and double can have radically different behaviors, demonstrated in the simple case by the differing return values, the same can be done for templates with for example int parameters, and can exhibit what can be oddly termed as static recursive polymoprphism.

While the term polymorphic is possibly being stretched, the concept is definately there. What is missing is not the ability to redefine functions, but the ability for specialized classes to automatically inherit functions that are not changing behavior.