How to implement typed strings in C++11?

Question

In my project there are a lot of strings with different meanings at the same scope, like:

std::string function_name = "name";
std::string hash = "0x123456";
std::string flag = "--configure";

I want to distinguish different strings by their meaning, to use with function overloads:

void Process(const std::string& string_type1);
void Process(const std::string& string_type2);

Obviously, I have to use different types:

void Process(const StringType1& string);
void Process(const StringType2& string);

But how to implement those types in an elegant manner? All I can come with is this:

class StringType1 {
  std::string str_;
 public:
  explicit StringType1(const std::string& str) : str_(str) {}
  std::string& toString() { return str_; }
};

// Same thing with StringType2, etc.

Can you advise more convenient way?

---

There is no point in renaming functions since the main goal is to not mistakenly pass one string type instead of another:

void ProcessType1(const std::string str);
void ProcessType2(const std::string str);

std::string str1, str2, str3;

// What should I pass where?..

Answer 1

You probably want a template with a tag parameter:

template<class Tag>
struct MyString
{
    std::string data;
};

struct FunctionName;
MyString<FunctionName> function_name;

Answer 2

Simple approach:

struct flag {
    string value;
};
struct name {
    string value;
};

You could improve this with implicit conversions to strings or other memberfunctions, too.