Thread: Error codes when compiling, using template function

Hi,

I'm pretty new on C++ so maybe this is obvious to you.

I'm trying to compile this code with MSVC. This code is taken from a C++ book as an example using templates.

Code:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
template <typename Any>
void	swap(Any &a, Any &b);

int main()
{
	cout.precision(2);
	cout.setf(ios::fixed, ios::floatfield);
	int		i = 10, j = 20;
	cout << "i, j = " << i << ", " << j << ".\n";
	swap(i, j);
	cout << "i, j = " << i << ", " << j << ".\n";
	return 0;
}

template <typename Any>
void	swap(Any &a, Any &b)
{
	Any		temp;

	temp = a;
	a = b;
	b = temp;
}

As I understand, the compiler is supposed to understand which code to produce from the type you send as arguments in the function call. In this case two int's.

But I get two fault codes:
error C2667: 'swap' : none of 2 overload have a best conversion
error C2668: 'swap' : ambiguous call to overloaded function


Please, someone who can explain what this means?

Change the name swap -> my_swap for example.
swap is already a template function in std namespace.

You're right. Now it works. And now I understand why it said that it was overloaded.

Thanks a lot.