std::optional

The class template std::optional manages an optional contained value, i.e. a value that may or may not be present.

A common use case for optional is the return value of a function that may fail. As opposed to other approaches, such as std::pair<T,bool>, optional handles expensive-to-construct objects well and is more readable, as the intent is expressed explicitly.

Any instance of optional<T> at any given point in time either contains a value or does not contain a value.

If an optional<T> contains a value, the value is guaranteed to be allocated as part of the optional object footprint, i.e. no dynamic memory allocation ever takes place. Thus, an optional object models an object, not a pointer, even though the operator*() and operator->() are defined.

When an object of type optional<T> is contextually converted to bool, the conversion returns true if the object contains a value and false if it does not contain a value.

The optional object contains a value in the following conditions:

• The object is initialized with a value of type T
• The object is assigned from another optional that contains a value.

The object does not contain a value in the following conditions:

• The object is default-initialized.
• The object is initialized with a value of std::nullopt_t or an optional object that does not contain a value.
• The object is assigned from a value of std::nullopt_t or from an optional that does not contain a value

There are no optional references, a program is ill-formed if it instantiates optional with a reference type.

Template parameters

Member types

Member functions

Non-member functions

Helper classes

Helpers

Example

#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <optional>
 
// optional can be used as the return type of a factory that may fail
std::optional<std::string> create(bool b) {
    if(b)
        return "Godzilla";
    else
        return {};
}
 
int main()
{
    std::cout << "create(false) returned "
              << create(false).value_or("empty") << '\n';
 
    // optional-returning factory functions are usable as conditions of while and if
    if(auto str = create(true)) {
        std::cout << "create(true) returned " << *str << '\n';
    }
}

create(false) returned empty
create(true) returned Godzilla