Thread: How to avoid template ambiguity

How do you avoid template ambiguity when working with templates and the class keyword. consider this example where the templated item is ambiguous (I assume) because non-number values can be passed into the function that accepts the templated item.

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <conio.h>

using namespace std;

template<class X>
long double Add(X * FirstNum, X * SecondNum);

int main(void) {
	float W;
	int Z;
	cout << "Enter a value for w " << endl;
	cin >> W;

	cout << "Enter a value for z " << endl;
	cin >> Z;

	cout << "The value of X plus Y is " << Add(&W, &Z) << endl;
	getch();
	return 0;
}

template<class X>
long double Add(X * FirstNum, X * SecondNum) {
	long double temp = *FirstNum + *SecondNum;
	return temp;
}

However I have never actually had problems using templates whether it be with vectors or otherwise. It is just that I have never written a linked list with templates and I figured it time to do so (doesn't ever C++ programmer do that during his/her life?)

EDIT:
Oh and by the way this program was written as an example so we need not comment on anything other than templates (unless I did something blatantly wrong that will make the program not compile anyway, which I don't think I did).

It doesn't know whether to call

Code:

Add(float*, float*) 
Add(int*, int*)

I'd suggest that you

A. take the items by const reference, not by pointer.
B. call the function like this

Code:

Add<float>(w,z);