c++ - Conditional compilation based on template values?

Question

the question posed in: Type condition in template

is very similar, yet the original question wasn't quite answered.

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <type_traits>


class AA {
public:
    double a;

    double Plus(AA &b) {
        return a + b.a;
    }
};

template<class T> double doit(T &t) {
    if (std::is_same<T, AA>::value)
        return t.Plus(t);
    else
        return t + t;
}

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    double a;
    AA aa;

    doit(a);
    doit(aa);

    return 0;
}

This doesn't compile, nor did I expect it to. Is something like this possible? Being, based on the template value, I want some code to be compiled, and others not. Here, 'double' doesn't have a method called "Plus" and class "AA" doesn't override the '+' operator. Operator overloading isn't always desirable when considering subtle semantics to the operations, so I'm looking for an alternative. I'd prefer to do #ifdef's (truly conditional compilation as posed in the ref'd question), but based on template values.

Answer 1

Since C++17 there is static if which is called if-constexpr. The following compiles fine since clang-3.9.1 and gcc-7.1.0, latest MSVC compiler 19.11.25506 handles well too with an option /std:c++17.

template<class T> double doit(T &t) {
    if constexpr (std::is_same_v<T, AA>)
        return t.Plus(t);
    else
        return t + t;
}