How to get class name?

Question

If I defined a class:

class Blah {};

How can I:

std::string const className = /* What do I need to do here? */;
assert( className == "Blah" );

I dont think typeid().name() is a good idea since it's compiler implementation specific. Is there anything provided by the C++ standard or Boost?

Note: If the class were inherited from Qt's QObject, I could easily use QMetaObject::className() to get the class name.

Answer 1

Like this:

class Blah { static std::string const className() { return "Blah"; }};

std::string const name = Blah::className();
assert(name == "Blah");

Or this:

class Blah {};

template < typename T > struct name;
template < > struct name<Blah> { static std::string value() { return "Blah"; }};

std::string const classname = name<Blah>::value();
assert(classname == "Blah");

Fancier:

#define DECLARE_NAMED_CLASS( Name ) \
struct Name;\
template < > struct name<Name> { static std::string value() { return #Name; }};\
struct Name

DECLARE_NAMED_CLASS(Blah) {};
std::string const className = name<Blah>::value();
...

Or this:

class Blah : QObject { Q_OBJECT };

Or this:... Or this: ...

Answer 2

Testing a class by looking at it's name sounds awfully like a Java style approach to me, and in C++, you should be wary of trying to apply the same patterns! A better way would be to use something like boost::type_traits, and may be is_same, with the real class name.