Thread: Help with templates!

i was reading a code from the book i study from and i saw that it appeared a variable, or i dont know what that is named "_m" this was never declared, and it apeared only once in the whole code. I tryed to compile it and it compiled succesfully. What does _m mean? here is the piece of code where it appears:

Code:

template <typename T>
void Table<T>::destroy()
{
     // Does the matrix exist?
     if( mDataMatrix )
     {
          for(int i = 0; i < _m; ++i)
          {
               // Does the ith row exist?
               if(mDataMatrix[i] )
               {
                    // Yes, delete it.
                    delete[]mDataMatrix[i];
                    mDataMatrix[i] = 0;
               }
          }
          // Delete the row-array.
          delete[] mDataMatrix;
          mDataMatrix = 0;
     }
mNumRows = 0;
mNumCols = 0;
}

and also, the compiler gives me a warning saying that the way i declared a function was obsolete. i decalred it as follows:

Code:

template <typename T>
Table<T>::Table<T>()

and the compiler says that insted of that i should compile it as:

Code:

template <typename T>
Table<T>::Table()

is it the same? or is it better the way the compiler tells me to do?

thank you,
Cherry.

Code:

Table<T>::Table()

This means that there is a function Table and it is in the Table<T> scope. Table<T> is the class. Table is the function. Now if you say:

Code:

Table<T>::Table<T>()

Then you mean there is a Table<T> function in the Table<T> class scope? But Table won't take T as a template argument. It doesn't need it.

In other words it is a function (constructor) inside a template class, not a template function inside a template class.

matsp i know what does _m represent, but what i dont know is why does that compile without errors if _m was never defined...

Oh, it didnt compile right, i dont know why but before i posted i dont know what happened and compiled. i changed _m for mNumRows and now works fine =D

but now i have one more dude...what does const mean in this cases?:

Code:

int numRows()const;
int numCols()const;

thank you very much!