Assignment operator of template class

Question

I have this example: a class of a matrix and the dimension of the matrix is given as template argument.

template <std::size_t DIM>
class Matrix {
   // ...
};

int main()
{
  Matrix<2> m2;
  Matrix<4> m4;

  m2 = m4;
}

Wat does my assignment operator have to look like to change the the DIM of m2 from 2 to 4?

Answer 1

Wat does my assignment operator have to look like to change the the DIM of m2 from 2 to 4?

You can't do that, it's impossible.

You can't change the template argument of an object's class type, it's a static property of the type, not something dynamic that can change at runtime.

You can change an int from the value 4 to the value 3, but you can't change it to a long. Similarly, you can change a Matrix<2>'s value but you can't change its type to Matrix<4>.

There is no way to do m2 = m4 and have it mean anything sensible.

Maybe you want the dimension to be a dynamic property of the type, not a template argument:

class Matrix {
  std::size_t m_dim;
  // ...
};

Now you can change the value at runtime, so assigning to the type can change its m_dim value.

Answer 2

template <std::size_t DIM>
class Matrix {

  template <std::size_t OtherDim>
  Matrix& operator=(const Matrix<OtherDim>& rhs)
  {
    // whatever magic you need in here
    return *this;
  }

};

Matrix<DIM> and Matrix<OtherDim> are two distinct types.

The first question to ask is, "Is there a logical operation of assigning a Matrix<4> to a Matrix<2>?".

The answer is probably "no".

But there probably is a valid assignment between Matrix<2> and Matrix<2>:

template <std::size_t DIM>
class Matrix {
  // implement a copy constructor...
  Matrix(const Matrix& rhs)
  : /* copy-initialise all data */
  {
    /* any other copy-related logic */
  }

  // ...and a copy-assignment operator
  Matrix& operator=(const Matrix& rhs)
  {
    if (&rhs != this) {
      Matrix tmp(rhs);
      std::swap(*this, tmp);
    }
    return *this;
  }

};