c++ - Specialization of 'template<class _Tp> struct std::less' in different namespace

Question

I am specializing the 'less' (predicate) for a data type.

The code looks like this:

template<>
struct std::less<DateTimeKey>
{
   bool operator()(const DateTimeKey& k1, const DateTimeKey& k2) const
   {
      // Some code ...
   }
}

When compiling (g++ 4.4.1 on Ubuntu 9.10), I get the error:

Specialization of 'template struct std::less' in different namespace

I did some research and found that there was a 'workaround' which involved wrapping the specialization in a std namespace - i.e. changing the code to:

namespace std {
template<>
struct less<DateTimeKey>
{
   bool operator()(const DateTimeKey& k1, const DateTimeKey& k2) const
   {
      // Some code ...
   }
}
}

which indeed, shuts the compiler up. However, that solution was from a post 5 years old (By the 'great' Victor Bazarof no less [pun unintended]). Is this fix still the way to go, or is there a better way of resolving this, or is the "old way" still valid?

Answer 1

This is still the way to do it. Unfortunately you cannot declare or define functions within a namespace like you would do with a class: you need to actually wrap them in a namespace block.