Chris Hamilton-3 wrote:
While boost::variant is very capable at what it does, there is one thing it doesn't do ..
..My question is this: why can't boost::variant be clever about reference data types..
The reason I want this, is to have a nice String variant, that encapsulates the various forms a string can take in a current project: std::strings, char*'s, and std::string* and boost::shared_ptr<std::string>. I want functions to be able to handle all of these types transparently by using variants as the argument types. Allowing "const std::string&" as a variant type allows this to be done while not requiring a wasteful string copy. .. (I have a small custom variant class implementing this, and it appears to work well. It's not as 'full fledged' as the boost::variant class, but the approach I've taken could surely be grafted on to boost::variant.)
An example will be better than a lengthy explanation, please have a look at the test-cases in the boost distribution: libs/variant/test/: specially variant_reference_test.cpp IMHO, it will answer all your queries. -Cat -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/An-extension-to-boost%3A%3Avariant-tp21881442p21896688... Sent from the Boost - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.