std::variant

The class template std::variant represents a type-safe union. An instance of std::variant at any given time either holds a value of one of its alternative types, or it holds no value (this state is hard to achieve, see valueless_by_exception).

As with unions, if a variant holds a value of some object type T, the object representation of T is allocated directly within the object representation of the variant itself. Variant is not allowed to allocate additional (dynamic) memory.

A variant is not permitted to hold references, arrays, or the type void. Empty variants are also ill-formed (std::variant<std::monostate> can be used instead).

A variant is permitted to hold the same type more than once, and to hold differently cv-qualified versions of the same type.

As with unions, the default-initialized variant holds a value of its first alternative, unless that alternative is not default-constructible (in which case default constructor won't compile: the helper class std::monostate can be used to make such variants default-constructible)

Template parameters

Member functions

Non-member functions

Helper classes

Helper objects

Example

#include <variant>
#include <string>
 
int main()
{
    std::variant<int, float> v, w;
    v = 12; // v contains int
    int i = std::get<int>(v);
    w = std::get<int>(v);
    w = std::get<0>(v); // same effect as the previous line
    w = v; // same effect as the previous line
 
//  std::get<double>(v); // error: no double in [int, float]
//  std::get<3>(v);      // error: valid index values are 0 and 1
 
    try {
      std::get<float>(w); // w contains int, not float: will throw
    }
    catch (std::bad_variant_access&) {}
 
    std::variant<std::string> v("abc"); // converting constructors work when unambiguous
    v = "def"; // converting assignment also works when unambiguous
}

See also