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Hi All, I am looking to replace Loki with Boost since we use Boost for other parts of projects. Example of current situation: template<typename T> struct param_traits {}; template<> struct param_traits<long> { typedef long param_type; static param_type init() { return 0; } static bool fromString(const string &str, param_type &value, int base) { // Do conversion } static string toString(param_type &value, const string &fmt) { // Do conversion } }; template<> struct param_traits<double> { typedef double param_type; static param_type init() { return 0.0; } static bool fromString(const string &str, param_type &value, int base) { // Do conversion } static string toString(param_type &value, const string &fmt) { // Do conversion } }; Class BaseParamValue { public: virtual ~BaseParamValue() {}; virtual bool fromString(const string &str, int base = 0) = 0; virtual string toString(const string &ftm = "") = 0; static BaseParamValue *create(const string &type) { if (type == string("LONG")) { return new ParamValue<long>(); } else if (type == string("DOUBLE")) { return new ParamValue<double>(); } return 0; } }; template<typename T> class ParamValue : public BaseParamValue { public: typedef param_traits<T> traits_type; typedef typename traits_type::param_type ParamType; ParamValue() : mValue() { } ~ParamValue() {}; bool fromString(const string &str, int base) { return traits_type::fromString(str, mValue, base); } string toString(const string &fmt) { return traits_type::toString(mValue, fmt); } private: ParamType mValue; }; class Param { public: Param() : mParamValue(0) { } Param(const string &type) : mParamValue(BaseParamValue::create(type)) { } ~Param() { delete mParamValue; } private: BaseParamValue *mParamValue; }; So as you can see I store a BaseParamValue in the param class instead of making the Param class itself a template, which is not an option at the moment. I am currently using loki StaticDispatcher to up cast (I guess) to the correct templatized instance in the operations. What I am trying to get done is the following: class TestVisit { public: TestVisit(); ~TestVisit(); void visit(const ParamValue<long> &value); void visit(const ParamValue<double> &value); }; Is there a way in Boost to go from a BaseParamValue * to the actual templatized ParamValue and call the correct visit using: testVisit.visit(*mParamValue). Currently I get a compiler error saying: cannot conver parameter 1 from 'BaseParamValue' to 'const ParamValue<T> &' Sorry for the long post, thanks in advance. Glenn