Order of template specializations

[Thomas Matthews]

Hi,

I have a templated class field:
template <typename Value_Type>
class Field
{
public:
Value_Type value;
};

I want to load the value member from an std::istream.
I want to use a special algorithm for string fields,
but the extraction operators for all others.

My question is: does the overloaded function have
to be declared before the template version?

void LoadField(Field<string>& sf, istream & inp)
{
// ...
}

template <typename Value_Type>
void LoadField(Field<Value_Type>& vf, istream & inp)
{
// ...
}

I would like to create specializations for the
Field<string> and place them in a different
translation unit than the one in which Field is
defined.

The idea is that when somebody wants a Field<double>
they don't get all the function declarations for
Field<string>.

This example was simplified from my actual code.
My actual design is:
Field
^
|
Typed_Field (template)
^
|
Sortable_Typed_Field

typedef Sortable_Typed_Field<int> Integer_Field;
typedef Sortable_Typed_Field<string> String_Field;

--
Thomas Matthews

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