typeid() returns extra characters in g++

Question

class foo
{
public:
  void say_type_name()
  {
    std::cout << typeid(this).name() << std::endl;
  }
};

int main()
{
  foo f;;
  f.say_type_name();
}
<         


        

Answer 1

Because it is a pointer to foo. And foo has 3 characters. So it becomes P3foo. The other one has type foo, so it becomes 3foo. Note that the text is implementation dependent, and in this case GCC just gives you the internal, mangled name.

Enter that mangled name into the program c++filt to get the unmangled name:

$ c++filt -t P3foo
foo*