I have the following simple test code (t.cxx): #include <streambuf> #include <sstream> using namespace std; class FileBuf: public streambuf { }; int main(int argc, char** argv) { FileBuf fbuf; istringstream iss; // The following line does not compile! iss.rdbuf(&fbuf); return 0; } When compiling the above code using g++ (version 5.3.1 20160406 (Red Hat 5.3.1-6)), I got very strange errors: $ g++ -o t t.cxx t.cxx: In function ‘int main(int, char**)’: t.cxx:14:17: error: no matching function for call to ‘std::__cxx11::basic_istringstream<char>::rdbuf(FileBuf*)’ iss.rdbuf(&fbuf); ^ In file included from t.cxx:2:0: /usr/include/c++/5.3.1/sstream:472:7: note: candidate: std::__cxx11::basic_istringstream<_CharT, _Traits, _Alloc>::__stringbuf_type* std::__cxx11::basic_istringstream<_CharT, _Traits, _Alloc>::rdbuf() const [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; _Alloc = std::allocator<char>; std::__cxx11::basic_istringstream<_CharT, _Traits, _Alloc>::__stringbuf_type = std::__cxx11::basic_stringbuf<char>] rdbuf() const ^ /usr/include/c++/5.3.1/sstream:472:7: note: candidate expects 0 arguments, 1 provided However, I have to a (unnecessary) cast to get it working, like this: ((istream&)iss).rdbuf(&fbuf); I'm always intimated by C++ template syntax. I wonder what have I done wrong this time.