generics - C++ : Vector of template class

Question

I have a template class named Cell as follows:-

template<class T>class Cell
{
    string header, T data;
}

Now I want another class Named Row. Row will have a vector named Cells such that I can add both Cell and Cell type elements to that vector. Is it possible?

If so, how can I do that? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

With the extra detail you've provided, the first two answers won't work. What you require is a type known as a variant for the cell and then you can have a vector of those. For example:-

enum CellType
{
  Int,
  Float,
  // etc
};

class Cell
{
  CellType type;
  union
  {
    int i;
    float f;
    // etc
  };
};

class Vector
{
  vector <Cell> cells;
};

This, however, is a pain to add new types to as it requires a lot of code to maintain. An alternative could use the cell template with a common base class:-

class ICell
{
  // list of cell methods
};

template <class T>
class Cell : public ICell
{
  T data;
  // implementation of cell methods
};

class Vector
{
  vector <ICell *> cells;
};

This might work better as you have less code initially to update to add a new cell type but you have to use a pointer type in the cells vector. If you stored the cell by value, vector <ICell>, then you will lose data due to object slicing.