Storing a type in C++

Question

Is it possible to store a type name as a C++ variable? For example, like this:

type my_type = int; // or string, or Foo, or any other type
void* data = ...;
         


        

Answer 1

Types are not objects in C++ (where they are in Ruby, for instance), so you cannot store instances of a type. Actually, types never appear in the executing code (RTTI is just extra storage).

Based on your example, it looks like you're looking for typedefs.

typedef int Number;
Number one = 1;
Number* best = (Number*) one;

Note that a typedef isn't storing the type; it is aliasing the type.

Answer 2

No, this is not possible in C++.

The RTTI typeid operator allows you to get some information about types at runtime: you can get the type's name and check whether it is equal to another type, but that's about it.