What are some other languages that support "partial specialization"? - language-agnostic

Question

Partial template specialization is one of the most important concepts for generic programming in C++. For example: to implement a generic swap function:
template <typename T>
void swap(T &x, T &y) {
const T tmp = x;
y = x;
x = tmp;
}
To specialize it for a vector to support O(1) swap:
template <typename T, class Alloc>
void swap(vector<T, Alloc> &x, vector<T, Alloc> &y) { x.swap(y); }
So you can always get optimal performance when you call swap(x, y) in a generic function;
Much appreciated, if you can post the equivalent (or the canonical example of partial specialization of the language if the language doesn't support the swap concept) in alternative languages.
EDIT: so it looks like many people who answered/commented really don't known what partial specialization is, and that the generic swap example seems to get in the way of understanding by some people. A more general example would be:
template <typename T>
void foo(T x) { generic_foo(x); }
A partial specialization would be:
template <typename T>
void foo(vector<T> x) { partially_specialized_algo_for_vector(x); }
A complete specialization would be:
void foo(vector<bool> bitmap) { special_algo_for_bitmap(bitmap); }
Why this is important? because you can call foo(anything) in a generic function:
template <typename T>
void bar(T x) {
// stuff...
foo(x);
// more stuff...
}
and get the most appropriate implementation at compile time. This is one way for C++ to achieve abstraction w/ minimal performance penalty.
Hope it helps clearing up the concept of "partial specialization". In a way, this is how C++ do type pattern matching without needing the explicit pattern matching syntax (say the match keyword in Ocaml/F#), which sometimes gets in the way for generic programming.

Answer 1

D supports partial specialization:
Language overview
Template feature comparison (with C++ 98 and 0x).
(scan for "partial" in the above links).
The second link in particular will give you a very detailed breakdown of what you can do with template specialization, not only in D but in C++ as well.
Here's a D specific example of swap. It should print out the message for the swap specialized for the Thing class.
import std.stdio; // for writefln
// Class with swap method
class Thing(T)
{
public:
this(T thing)
{
this.thing = thing;
}
// Implementation is the same as generic swap, but it will be called instead.
void swap(Thing that)
{
const T tmp = this.thing;
this.thing = that.thing;
that.thing = tmp;
}
public:
T thing;
}
// Swap generic function
void swap(T)(ref T lhs, ref T rhs)
{
writefln("Generic swap.");
const T tmp = lhs;
lhs = rhs;
rhs = tmp;
}
void swap(T : Thing!(U))(ref T lhs, ref T rhs)
{
writefln("Specialized swap method for Things.");
lhs.swap(rhs);
}
// Test case
int main()
{
auto v1 = new Thing!(int)(10);
auto v2 = new Thing!(int)(20);
assert (v1.thing == 10);
assert (v2.thing == 20);
swap(v1, v2);
assert (v1.thing == 20);
assert (v2.thing == 10);
return 0;
}

Answer 2

I am afraid that C# does not support partial template specialization.
Partial template specialization means:
You have a base class with two or more templates (generics / type parameters).
The type parameters would be <T, S>
In a derived (specialized) class you indicate the type of one of the type parameters.
The type parameters could look like this <T, int>.
So when someone uses (instantiates an object of) the class where the last type parameter is an int, the derived class is used.

Answer 3

Haskell has overlapping instances as an extension:
class Sizable a where
size :: a -> Int
instance Collection c => Sizable c where
size = length . toList
is a function to find size of any collection, which can have more specific instances:
instance Sizable (Seq a) where
size = Seq.length
See also Advanced Overlap on HaskellWiki.

Answer 4

Actually, you can (not quite; see below) do it in C# with extension methods:
public Count (this IEnumerable<T> seq) {
int n = 0;
foreach (T t in seq)
n++;
return n;
}
public Count (this T[] arr) {
return arr.Length;
}
Then calling array.Count() will use the specialised version. "Not quite" is because the resolution depends on the static type of array, not on the run-time type. I.e. this will use the more general version:
IEnumerable<int> array = SomethingThatReturnsAnArray();
return array.Count();

Answer 5

C#:
void Swap<T>(ref T a, ref T b) {
var c = a;
a = b;
b = c;
}
I guess the (pure) Haskell-version would be:
swap :: a -> b -> (b,a)
swap a b = (b, a)

Answer 6

Java has generics, which allow you to do similar sorts of things.