This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 Core Issues List revision 118e. See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official list.

2025-11-05

1635. How similar are template default arguments to function default arguments?

Default function arguments are instantiated only when needed. Is the same true of default template arguments? For example, is the following well-formed?

  #include <type_traits>

  template<class T>
  struct X {
    template<class U = typename T::type>
    static void foo(int){}
    static void foo(...){}
  };

  int main(){
    X<std::enable_if<false>>::foo(0);
  }

Also, is the effect on lookup the same? E.g.,

  struct S {
    template<typename T = U> void f();
    struct U {};
  };

Additional note (November, 2020):

Paper P1787R6, adopted at the November, 2020 meeting, partially addresses this issue.