Can you make a C++ generic function?

Question

Is it possible to create a generic C++ function foo?

foo(Object bar, Object fred)
{
    //code
}

in which that if the two objects

Answer 1

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say you don't need Templates to do this. I'm not saying don't use them, but just that depending on exactly what you're wanting to do, there are alternatives.

What it sounds like you want is the ability to compare two generic objects provided that they adhere to a common set of ground rules. You could actually implement this using traditional inheritance or using templates. The choice of which you want comes down to how flexible you need it to be and whether you want some of the decisions to be made at runtime or compile time. If the latter - i.e. you want to pick up on casting errors etc., - then go for templates.

Either way, your objects will either have to adhere to some basic groundrules for how you compare them and preferably encapsulate that - this way your comparitor would be generic. or you'd have to write different comparitors for each object comparison. While it sounds like the latter is what you want, be wary of letting too much of your class implementation leach out into the comparitor function and thereby breaking encapsulation.

From my own experience, going straight to the template approach can occasionally result in a lot of bloated, messed up code which is hard to read, debug and maintain. Take a hard look at you design and what you actually need first.