c++ template: 'is not derived from type'

Question

I do not understand why this code is not valid:

#include <vector>

template <typename T>
class A{
  public:
    A() { v.clear(); }

    std::vector<A<T> *>::const_iterator begin(){
      return v.begin();
    }

  private:
    std::vector<A<T> *> v;
};

When compiling it with gcc, it get the following error:

test.cpp:8: error: type 'std::vector<A<T>*, std::allocator<A<T>*> >' is not derived from type 'A<T>'
test.cpp:8: error: expected ';' before 'begin'
test.cpp:12: error: expected `;' before 'private'

What is wrong, and how to fix it??

Answer 1

In this line, you are missing the typename keyword:

std::vector<A<T> *>::const_iterator begin(){

You need:

typename std::vector<A<T> *>::const_iterator begin(){

This because std::vector<A<T> *> is dependent on the template parameter (T) of the class template (A). To enable correct parsing of the template without having to make any assumptions about possible specializations of any other templates, the language rules require you to indicate which dependent names denote types by using the typename keyword.

Answer 2

You need to add typename as the types depend on each other and the compiler can't figure out if it really is a type.

However, on gcc 4.5.0 i get a more concise error message:

test.cc:8:3: error: need ‘typename’ before ‘std::vector<A<T>*>::const_iterator’ because ‘std::vector<A<T>*>’ is a dependent scope