Greetings all, as I'm new to this list, I'll keep my query short. It was suggested to me to use boost::any to store numeric values of whatever type (int, float, double, etc) so that I could use one std::list to store multiple values. I've looked through the header (any.hpp) and I admit it's a little hard for me to follow. I'm not what you'd call a superprogrammer... yet. :) I understand how to store a value in the boost::any object, but I'm not clear on how one would get that value back later (for display on screen, etc). What I'd really like to do is similar to one of the examples: --- snip --- struct property { property(); property(const std::string &, const boost::any &); std::string name; boost::any value; }; typedef std::list<property> properties; --- snip --- But I want to be able to do arithmetic with the resultant object(s): property T; property V; property Z; T [+-*/] Z; T = V [+-*/] Z T + [int,float,etc]; And so on. However, I want to make sure that the normal arithmetic type conversions (type promotions) take place (i.e. int + float returns a temporary object of type float). Example: boost::any value1; boost::any value2; boost::any value3; value1 = 127.915; value2 = 17; value3 = value1.getwhatevervalue() + value2.getwhatevervalue(); cout << value3.getwhatevervalue() << endl; value3 = value2.getwhatevervalue() + value1.getwhatevervalue(); cout << value3.getwhatevervalue() << endl; Both should return a temporary float with a value of 144.915. since I don't know how to get the value from boost::any, I just used getwhatevervalue() as an example. Sincerely, GRE