Creating a vector that holds two different data types or classes

Question

I am trying to create a vector that holds an int and a string. Is this possible?

For example I want vector<int>myArr to hold string x= "Picture This"

Answer 1

You can use a union, but there are better alternatives.

You can use boost::variant to get this kind of functionality:

using string_int = boost::variant<std::string, int>;

std::vector<string_int> vec;

To get either a string or an int out of a variant, you can use boost::get:

std::string& my_string = boost::get<std::string>(vec[0]);

Edit
Well, it's 2017 now. You no longer need Boost to have variant, as we now have std::variant!

Answer 2

Yes it is possible to hold two different types, you can create a vector of union types. The space used will be the larger of the types. Union types are explained here along with how you can tag the type. A small example:

union Numeric
{
    int i;
    float f;
};

std::vector<Numeric> someNumbers;
Numeric n;
n.i = 4;
someNumbers.push_back(n);

You can also use std::string but you need place the union in a struct with a type tag for the destructor to choose the correct type to destroy. See the end of the link.