Passing a string literal as a parameter to a C++ template class

You can have a const char* non-type template parameter, and pass it a const char[] variable with static linkage, which is not all that far from passing a string literal directly.

#include <iostream>    

template<const char *str> 
struct cts {
    void p() {std::cout << str;}
};

static const char teststr[] = "Hello world!";
int main() {
    cts<teststr> o;
    o.p();
}

http://coliru.stacked-crooked.com/a/64cd254136dd0272

Further from Neil's answer: one way to using strings with templates as you want is to define a traits class and define the string as a trait of the type.

#include <iostream>

template <class T>
struct MyTypeTraits
{
   static const char* name;
};

template <class T>
const char* MyTypeTraits<T>::name = "Hello";

template <>
struct MyTypeTraits<int>
{
   static const char* name;
};

const char* MyTypeTraits<int>::name = "Hello int";

template <class T>
class MyTemplateClass
{
    public:
     void print() {
         std::cout << "My name is: " << MyTypeTraits<T>::name << std::endl;
     }
};

int main()
{
     MyTemplateClass<int>().print();
     MyTemplateClass<char>().print();
}

prints

My name is: Hello int
My name is: Hello

Sorry, C++ does not currently support the use of string literals (or real literals) as template parameters.

But re-reading your question, is that what you are asking? You cannot say:

foo <"bar"> x;

but you can say

template <typename T>
struct foo {
   foo( T t ) {}
};

foo <const char *> f( "bar" );