Book excerpt: Templates are among the most powerful features of C++, but they remain misunderstood and underutilized, even as the C++ language and development community have advanced. In C++ Templates, Second Edition, three pioneering C++ experts show why, when, and how to use modern templates to build software that’s cleaner, faster, more efficient, and easier to maintain. Now extensively updated for the C++11, C++14, and C++17 standards, this new edition presents state-of-the-art techniques for a wider spectrum of applications. The authors provide authoritative explanations of all new language features that either improve templates or interact with them, including variadic templates, generic lambdas, class template argument deduction, compile-time if, forwarding references, and user-defined literals. They also deeply delve into fundamental language concepts (like value categories) and fully cover all standard type traits. The book starts with an insightful tutorial on basic concepts and relevant language features. The remainder of the book serves as a comprehensive reference, focusing first on language details and then on coding techniques, advanced applications, and sophisticated idioms. Throughout, examples clearly illustrate abstract concepts and demonstrate best practices for exploiting all that C++ templates can do. Understand exactly how templates behave, and avoid common pitfalls Use templates to write more efficient, flexible, and maintainable software Master today’s most effective idioms and techniques Reuse source code without compromising performance or safety Benefit from utilities for generic programming in the C++ Standard Library Preview the upcoming concepts feature The companion website, tmplbook.com, contains sample code and additional updates.