Queries information of a type.
Used where the dynamic type of a polymorphic object must be known and for static type identification.
typeid ( type ) | (1) | |
typeid ( expression ) | (2) |
The header <typeinfo>
must be included or imported (since C++20) or a standard library module imported (since C++23) before using typeid
, otherwise the program is ill-formed.
The typeid expression is an lvalue expression which refers to an object with static storage duration, of const-qualified version of the polymorphic type std::type_info
or some type derived from it.
If the type of type or expression is a class type or a reference to a class type, then that class type cannot be an incomplete type.
std::type_info
object representing the type type. If type is a reference type, the result refers to a std::type_info
object representing the cv-unqualified version of the referenced type.typeid
expression evaluates the expression and then refers to the std::type_info
object that represents the dynamic type of the expression. If expression is obtained by applying the unary *
operator to a pointer and the pointer is a null pointer value, an exception of type std::bad_typeid
(until C++14)a type matching handlers of type std::bad_typeid
(since C++14) is thrown.typeid
does not evaluate the expression, and the std::type_info
object it identifies represents the static type of the expression. Lvalue-to-rvalue, array-to-pointer, or function-to-pointer conversions are not performed. Temporary materialization, however, is (formally) performed for prvalue arguments: the argument must be destructible in the context in which the typeid
expression appears. (since C++17)
If the type of type or expression is cv-qualified, the result of the typeid
refers to a std::type_info
object representing the cv-unqualified type (that is, typeid(const T) == typeid(T)
).
If typeid
is used on an object under construction or destruction (in a destructor or in a constructor, including constructor's initializer list or default member initializers), then the std::type_info
object referred to by this typeid
represents the class that is being constructed or destroyed even if it is not the most-derived class.
When applied to an expression of polymorphic type, evaluation of a typeid expression may involve runtime overhead (a virtual table lookup), otherwise typeid expression is resolved at compile time.
It is unspecified whether the destructor for the object referred to by typeid
is executed at the end of the program.
There is no guarantee that the same std::type_info
instance will be referred to by all evaluations of the typeid expression on the same type, although they would compare equal, std::type_info::hash_code
of those type_info
objects would be identical, as would be their std::type_index
.
const std::type_info& ti1 = typeid(A); const std::type_info& ti2 = typeid(A); assert(&ti1 == &ti2); // not guaranteed assert(ti1 == ti2); // guaranteed assert(ti1.hash_code() == ti2.hash_code()); // guaranteed assert(std::type_index(ti1) == std::type_index(ti2)); // guaranteed
The example showing output using one of the implementations where type_info::name
returns full type names; filter through c++filt -t if using gcc or similar.
#include <iostream> #include <string> #include <typeinfo> struct Base {}; // non-polymorphic struct Derived : Base {}; struct Base2 { virtual void foo() {} }; // polymorphic struct Derived2 : Base2 {}; int main() { int myint = 50; std::string mystr = "string"; double *mydoubleptr = nullptr; std::cout << "myint has type: " << typeid(myint).name() << '\n' << "mystr has type: " << typeid(mystr).name() << '\n' << "mydoubleptr has type: " << typeid(mydoubleptr).name() << '\n'; // std::cout << myint is a glvalue expression of polymorphic type; it is evaluated const std::type_info& r1 = typeid(std::cout << myint); // side-effect: prints 50 std::cout << '\n' << "std::cout<<myint has type : " << r1.name() << '\n'; // std::printf() is not a glvalue expression of polymorphic type; NOT evaluated const std::type_info& r2 = typeid(std::printf("%d\n", myint)); std::cout << "printf(\"%d\\n\",myint) has type : " << r2.name() << '\n'; // Non-polymorphic lvalue is a static type Derived d1; Base& b1 = d1; std::cout << "reference to non-polymorphic base: " << typeid(b1).name() << '\n'; Derived2 d2; Base2& b2 = d2; std::cout << "reference to polymorphic base: " << typeid(b2).name() << '\n'; try { // dereferencing a null pointer: okay for a non-polymorphic expression std::cout << "mydoubleptr points to " << typeid(*mydoubleptr).name() << '\n'; // dereferencing a null pointer: not okay for a polymorphic lvalue Derived2* bad_ptr = nullptr; std::cout << "bad_ptr points to... "; std::cout << typeid(*bad_ptr).name() << '\n'; } catch (const std::bad_typeid& e) { std::cout << " caught " << e.what() << '\n'; } }
Possible output:
======== output from Clang ======== myint has type: i mystr has type: NSt3__112basic_stringIcNS_11char_traitsIcEENS_9allocatorIcEEEE mydoubleptr has type: Pd 50 std::cout<<myint has type : NSt3__113basic_ostreamIcNS_11char_traitsIcEEEE printf("%d\n",myint) has type : i reference to non-polymorphic base: 4Base reference to polymorphic base: 8Derived2 mydoubleptr points to d bad_ptr points to... caught std::bad_typeid ======== output from MSVC ======== myint has type: int mystr has type: class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > mydoubleptr has type: double * __ptr64 50 std::cout<<myint has type : class std::basic_ostream<char,struct std::char_traits<char> > printf("%d\n",myint) has type : int reference to non-polymorphic base: struct Base reference to polymorphic base: struct Derived2 mydoubleptr points to double bad_ptr points to... caught Attempted a typeid of nullptr pointer!
The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.
DR | Applied to | Behavior as published | Correct behavior |
---|---|---|---|
CWG 492 | C++98 | when typeid is applied to a reference to cv-qualified type,the result represents the referenced type | the result represents the cv-unqualified referenced type |
CWG 1416 | C++98 | the wording regarding top-level cv-qualification might be misinterpreted | improved the wording |
contains some type's information, generated by the implementation. This is the class returned by the typeid operator. (class) |
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