std::variant reflection. How can I tell which type of value std::variant is assigned?

Question

I have a class called foo_t that has a member called bar which could be any one of the types std::string, int, std::vector<double>, etc. I would like to be able to ask foo_t which type bar has been assigned to. I decided to use std::variant.

I've written a solution, but I'm not sure if this is a good use of std::variant. I'm not sure if it matters, but I expect the list of types to possibly grow much bigger in the future. I made an enum class to store which type std::variant is assigned to. My first implementation also available on wandbox:

#include <iostream>
#include <variant>
#include <vector>
#include <string>

enum foo_kind_t {
  double_list,
  name_tag,
  number,
  unknown
};

template <typename val_t>
struct get_foo_kind_t {
  constexpr static foo_kind_t value = unknown;
};

template <>
struct get_foo_kind_t<int> {
  constexpr static foo_kind_t value = number;
};

template <>
struct get_foo_kind_t<std::string> {
  constexpr static foo_kind_t value = name_tag;
};

template <>
struct get_foo_kind_t<std::vector<double>> {
  constexpr static foo_kind_t value = double_list;
};

class foo_t {

public:

  foo_t(): kind(unknown) {}

  template <typename val_t>
  void assign_bar(const val_t &val) {
    static_assert(get_foo_kind_t<val_t>::value != unknown, "unsupported assignment");
    kind = get_foo_kind_t<val_t>::value;
    bar = val;
  }

  foo_kind_t get_kind() {
    return kind;
  }

  template <typename val_t>
  val_t get_bar() {
    if (get_foo_kind_t<val_t>::value != kind) {
      throw std::runtime_error("wrong kind");
    }
    return std::get<val_t>(bar);
  }

private:

  foo_kind_t kind;

  std::variant<
    int,
    std::string,
    std::vector<double>
  > bar;

};

template <typename val_t>
void print_foo(foo_t &foo) {
    std::cout << "kind: " << foo.get_kind() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "value: " << foo.get_bar<val_t>() << std::endl << std::endl;
}

int main(int, char*[]) {

    // double_list
    foo_t b;
    std::vector<double> b_val({ 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 });
    b.assign_bar(b_val);
    std::cout << "kind: " << b.get_kind() << std::endl;
    std::cout << "value: vector size: " << b.get_bar<std::vector<double>>().size() << std::endl << std::endl;

    // name_tag
    foo_t d;
    std::string d_val("name");
    d.assign_bar(d_val);
    print_foo<std::string>(d);

    // number
    foo_t c;
    int c_val = 99;
    c.assign_bar(c_val);
    print_foo<int>(c);

    // unknown
    foo_t a;
    std::cout << a.get_kind() << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

Is this a good way to do it? Is there a way having better performance? Is there a way that requires less code to be written? Is there a way that doesn't require C++17?

Answer 1

Using std::variant::index to check stored type at runtime.

Answer 2

If you only need to ask "Is this variant of type X" for a single type X, then I recommend that you prefer std::holds_alternative over std::variant::index because the line of code will not have to be updated if the index of the type in the variant changes in the future.

Example:

if (std::holds_alternative<X>(my_variant)) {
    std::cout << "Variant is of type X" << std::endl;
}