Overloading member methods with typedef aliases as parameters

Question

I’m having some trouble overloading methods in C++.

typedef char int8_t;
class SomeClass{
public:
…
void Method(int8_t paramater);
void Method(char paramater         


        

Answer 1

Use a faux type. Wrap one of char or int8_t in a structure and use the structure as a parameter.

Answer 2

... they may refer to the same type in which case overloading won’t work. I want to make them work at the same time?

Fortunately that's not possible (even with templates). Because it kills the very purpose of a typedef.
If you intend to do this in your code then it's a code smell; you may have to change your design.

Answer 3

You might gain some degree of improvement by trying this:

void Method(char paramater);
void Method(signed char paramater);
void Method(unsigned char paramater);

If an implementation defines int8_t, and if the definition matches one of those three, then the correct function will get called.

However, a devious implementation could do something like this:

typedef __special_secret_sauce int8_t;

and then you would need to define another overload for int8_t. It's pretty tough for you to define another overload for int8_t to contend with those implementations and at the same time not define it for implementations that typedef int8_t as signed char. Someone else said it's not even possible.

There can be implementations where int8_t doesn't exist at all. If you just define overloads for the three variations of char then you'll have no problem there.