How do I force a particular instance of a C++ template to instantiate?

Question

See title. I have a template. I want to force a particular instance of a template to instantiate. How do I do this?

More specifically, can you force an abstract temp

Answer 1

If I understand your question correctly, you have a template class, and you want to force the compiler to generate the code for use with some specific type. For example, you may want to ensure the code for std::vector exists in your program.

The best way to ensure this is to simply construct an instance of the class:

void EnsureInstantiation()
{
    std::vector intvector;
    std::vector boolvector;
    /// etc.
}

The trick is that you don't even have to call EnsureInstantiation anywhere in your code. Just make sure it's not static or else the compiler may optimize it out.