std::variant_alternative, std::variant_alternative_t

 

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)

Execution support library (C++26)

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 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_ltis_lteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)   is_neqis_gtis_gteq (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) to_chars_result (C++17) from_chars_result (C++17)

 

std::variant

Member functions

variant::variant

variant::~variant

variant::operator=

Observers

variant::index

variant::valueless_by_exception

Modifiers

variant::emplace

variant::swap

Visitation

variant::visit (C++26)

Non-member functions

visit

holds_alternative

get(std::variant)

get_if

operator==operator!=operator<operator<=operator>operator>=operator<=> (C++20)

swap(std::variant)

Helper classes

monostate

bad_variant_access

variant_size

variant_alternative

hash<std::variant>

Helper objects

variant_npos

 

Defined in header <variant>
template <std::size_t I, class T> struct variant_alternative; /* undefined */	(1)	(since C++17)
template <std::size_t I, class... Types> struct variant_alternative<I, variant<Types...>>;	(2)	(since C++17)
template <std::size_t I, class T> class variant_alternative<I, const T>;	(3)	(since C++17)
template <std::size_t I, class T> class variant_alternative<I, volatile T>; template <std::size_t I, class T> class variant_alternative<I, const volatile T>;	(3)	(since C++17) (deprecated in C++20)

Provides compile-time indexed access to the types of the alternatives of the possibly cv-qualified variant, combining cv-qualifications of the variant (if any) with the cv-qualifications of the alternative.

Formally,

2) meets the TransformationTrait requirements with a member typedef type equal to the type of the alternative with index I

3) meets the TransformationTrait requirements with a member typedef type that names, respectively, std::add_const_t<std::variant_alternative_t<I,T>>, std::add_volatile_t<std::variant_alternative_t<I,T>>, and std::add_cv_t<std::variant_alternative_t<I,T>>

Member types

Member type	Definition
type	the type of Ith alternative of the variant, where I must be in [0, sizeof...(Types)), otherwise the program is ill-formed.

Helper template alias

template <size_t I, class T> using variant_alternative_t = typename variant_alternative<I, T>::type;		(since C++17)

Example

Run this code

#include <variant>
#include <iostream>
 
using my_variant = std::variant<int, float>;
static_assert(std::is_same_v
    <int,   std::variant_alternative_t<0, my_variant>>);
static_assert(std::is_same_v
    <float, std::variant_alternative_t<1, my_variant>>);
// cv-qualification on the variant type propagates to the extracted alternative type.
static_assert(std::is_same_v
    <const int, std::variant_alternative_t<0, const my_variant>>);
 
int main()
{
    std::cout << "All static assertions passed.\n";
}

Output:

All static assertions passed.

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 2974	C++17	out-of-bounds index resulted in undefined behavior	made ill-formed

See also

variant_sizevariant_size_v (C++17)	obtains the size of the variant's list of alternatives at compile time (class template) (variable template)
std::tuple_element<std::tuple> (C++11)	obtains the type of the specified element (class template specialization)