I found out why some chars was stripped from my message and how to send it correctly. So, here it is, again: It is invalid C++. Your idea written correctly looks like this: template class TType { public: CString GetAsString() { CString sValue; sValue.Format(GetFormat(), m_tValue); return sValue; } protected: T m_tValue; }; template <class T> CString GetFormat(); template <> CString GetFormat<int>() { return "%d"; } template <> CString GetFormat<float>() { return "%.4f"; } Unfortunately, this doesn't work on VC++ 6.0 (GetFormat<int> is called even for float's). Try this: template <class T> class TType { public: TType(const T& value) : m_tValue(value) { } CString GetAsString() { CString sValue; sValue.Format(TypeHelper::GetFormat(), m_tValue); return sValue; } protected: T m_tValue; }; template <class T> class TypeHelper; template <> class TypeHelper<int> { public: static CString GetFormat() { return "%d"; } }; template <> class TypeHelper<float> { public: static CString GetFormat() { return "%.4f"; } }; -- Martin

Hm, it seems that discussion boards software stripped some chars from my post. For example, in template specialization definition: template <> class TypeHelper , it stripped "" after class name. Please send me request email, and I will send you correct version of my post. Regards -- Martin

It is invalid C++. Your idea written correctly looks like this: template class TType { public: CString GetAsString() { CString sValue; sValue.Format(GetFormat(), m_tValue); return sValue; } protected: T m_tValue; }; template CString GetFormat(); template <> CString GetFormat() { return "%d"; } template <> CString GetFormat() { return "%.4f"; } Unfortunately, this doesn't work on VC++ 6.0 (GetFormat is called even for float's). Try this: template class TType { public: TType(const T& value) : m_tValue(value) { } CString GetAsString() { CString sValue; sValue.Format(TypeHelper::GetFormat(), m_tValue); return sValue; } protected: T m_tValue; }; template class TypeHelper; template <> class TypeHelper { public: static CString GetFormat() { return "%d"; } }; template <> class TypeHelper { public: static CString GetFormat() { return "%.4f"; } }; -- Martin

Commercial: http://www.bristol.com/exactml Free: http://technet.oracle.com/tech/xml/classgen\_cpp/ -- Martin