std::any

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Utilities library

Language support Type support (basic types, RTTI) Library feature-test macros (C++20) Dynamic memory management Program utilities Coroutine support (C++20) Variadic functions is_constant_evaluated (C++20) is_within_lifetime (C++26) initializer_list (C++11) source_location (C++20) Three-way comparison (C++20) three_way_comparablethree_way_comparable_with (C++20)(C++20) strong_ordering (C++20) weak_ordering (C++20) partial_ordering (C++20) common_comparison_category (C++20) compare_three_way_result (C++20) compare_three_way (C++20) strong_order (C++20) weak_order (C++20) partial_order (C++20) compare_strong_order_fallback (C++20) compare_weak_order_fallback (C++20) compare_partial_order_fallback (C++20)    is_eqis_neqis_ltis_lteqis_gtis_gteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)(C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

General utilities Date and time Function objects Formatting library (C++20) bitset hash (C++11) Relational operators (deprecated in C++20) rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator> rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>= Integer comparison functions cmp_equalcmp_lesscmp_less_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)    cmp_not_equalcmp_greatercmp_greater_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20) in_range (C++20) Swap and type operations swap ranges::swap (C++20) exchange (C++14) declval (C++11) to_underlying (C++23) forward (C++11) forward_like (C++23) move (C++11) move_if_noexcept (C++11) as_const (C++17) Common vocabulary types pair tuple (C++11) optional (C++17) any (C++17) variant (C++17) tuple_size (C++11) tuple_element (C++11) apply (C++17) make_from_tuple (C++17) expected (C++23) Elementary string conversions to_chars (C++17) from_chars (C++17) chars_format (C++17)

 

std::any

Member functions

any::any

any::~any

any::operator=

Modifiers

any::emplace

any::reset

any::swap

Observers

any::has_value

any::type

Non-member functions

swap(std::any)

any_cast

make_any

 

Defined in header <any>
class any;		(since C++17)

The class any describes a type-safe container for single values of any copy constructible type.

1) An object of class any stores an instance of any type that satisfies the constructor requirements or is empty, and this is referred to as the state of the class any object. The stored instance is called the contained object. Two states are equivalent if they are either both empty or if both are not empty and if the contained objects are equivalent.

2) The non-member any_cast functions provide type-safe access to the contained object.

Implementations are encouraged to avoid dynamic allocations for small objects, but such an optimization may only be applied to types for which std::is_nothrow_move_constructible returns true.

Member functions

(constructor)	constructs an any object (public member function)
operator=	assigns an any object (public member function)
(destructor)	destroys an any object (public member function)
Modifiers
emplace	change the contained object, constructing the new object directly (public member function)
reset	destroys contained object (public member function)
swap	swaps two any objects (public member function)
Observers
has_value	checks if object holds a value (public member function)
type	returns the typeid of the contained value (public member function)

Non-member functions

std::swap(std::any) (C++17)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function)
any_cast (C++17)	type-safe access to the contained object (function template)
make_any (C++17)	creates an any object (function template)

Helper classes

bad_any_cast (C++17)

exception thrown by the value-returning forms of any_cast on a type mismatch (class)

Notes

Feature-test macro	Value	Std	Comment
__cpp_lib_any	201606L	(C++17)	std::any

Example

Run this code

#include <any>
#include <iostream>
 
int main()
{
    std::cout << std::boolalpha;
 
    // any type
    std::any a = 1;
    std::cout << a.type().name() << ": " << std::any_cast<int>(a) << '\n';
    a = 3.14;
    std::cout << a.type().name() << ": " << std::any_cast<double>(a) << '\n';
    a = true;
    std::cout << a.type().name() << ": " << std::any_cast<bool>(a) << '\n';
 
    // bad cast
    try
    {
        a = 1;
        std::cout << std::any_cast<float>(a) << '\n';
    }
    catch (const std::bad_any_cast& e)
    {
        std::cout << e.what() << '\n';
    }
 
    // has value
    a = 2;
    if (a.has_value())
        std::cout << a.type().name() << ": " << std::any_cast<int>(a) << '\n';
 
    // reset
    a.reset();
    if (!a.has_value())
        std::cout << "no value\n";
 
    // pointer to contained data
    a = 3;
    int* i = std::any_cast<int>(&a);
    std::cout << *i << '\n';
}

Possible output:

int: 1
double: 3.14
bool: true
bad any_cast
int: 2
no value
3

See also

function (C++11)	wraps callable object of any copy constructible type with specified function call signature (class template)
move_only_function (C++23)	wraps callable object of any type with specified function call signature (class template)
variant (C++17)	a type-safe discriminated union (class template)
optional (C++17)	a wrapper that may or may not hold an object (class template)