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  28 <div><h2 class="title">
  29 <a name="boost_typeindex"></a>Chapter&#160;41.&#160;Boost.TypeIndex 4.1</h2></div>
  30 <div><p class="copyright">Copyright &#169; 2012-2016 Antony Polukhin</p></div>
  31 <div><div class="legalnotice">
  32 <a name="boost_typeindex.legal"></a><p>
  33         Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
  34         file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
  35       </p>
  36 </div></div>
  37 </div></div>
  38 <div class="toc">
  39 <p><b>Table of Contents</b></p>
  40 <dl class="toc">
  41 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex.html#boost_typeindex.motivation">Motivation</a></span></dt>
  42 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/getting_started.html">Getting started</a></span></dt>
  43 <dd><dl>
  44 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/getting_started.html#boost_typeindex.getting_started.how_to_use">How to use</a></span></dt>
  45 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/getting_started.html#boost_typeindex.getting_started.example_with_boost_any">Example
  46       with Boost.Any</a></span></dt>
  47 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/getting_started.html#boost_typeindex.getting_started.example_with_boost_variant">Example
  48       with Boost.Variant</a></span></dt>
  49 </dl></dd>
  50 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/config.html">Configuring and building the library</a></span></dt>
  51 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/how_it_works.html">How it works</a></span></dt>
  52 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/examples.html">Examples</a></span></dt>
  53 <dd><dl>
  54 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/examples.html#boost_typeindex.examples.getting_human_readable_and_mangl">Getting
  55       human readable and mangled type names</a></span></dt>
  56 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/examples.html#boost_typeindex.examples.storing_information_about_a_type">Storing
  57       information about a type in container </a></span></dt>
  58 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/examples.html#boost_typeindex.examples.getting_through_the_inheritance_">Getting
  59       through the inheritance to receive a real type name </a></span></dt>
  60 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/examples.html#boost_typeindex.examples.using_runtime_cast_where_rtti_is">Using
  61       runtime_cast where RTTI is unavailable or undesirable </a></span></dt>
  62 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/examples.html#boost_typeindex.examples.exact_type_matching_storing_type">Exact
  63       type matching: storing type with const, volatile and reference qualifiers</a></span></dt>
  64 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/examples.html#boost_typeindex.examples.table_of_raw_name_and_pretty_nam">Table
  65       of raw_name() and pretty_name() outputs with and without RTTI </a></span></dt>
  66 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/examples.html#boost_typeindex.examples.c_14_checking_namespace_at_compi">C++14:
  67       Checking namespace at compile time </a></span></dt>
  68 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/examples.html#boost_typeindex.examples.c_14_checking_lexigraphical_orde">C++14:
  69       Checking lexigraphical order of provided types </a></span></dt>
  70 </dl></dd>
  71 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html">Boost.TypeIndex Header Reference</a></span></dt>
  72 <dd><dl>
  73 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html#header.boost.type_index_hpp">Header &lt;boost/type_index.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
  74 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html#header.boost.type_index.ctti_type_index_hpp">Header &lt;boost/type_index/ctti_type_index.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
  75 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html#header.boost.type_index.runtime_cast_hpp">Header &lt;boost/type_index/runtime_cast.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
  76 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html#header.boost.type_index.runtime_cast.boost_shared_ptr_cast_hpp">Header &lt;boost/type_index/runtime_cast/boost_shared_ptr_cast.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
  77 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html#header.boost.type_index.runtime_cast.pointer_cast_hpp">Header &lt;boost/type_index/runtime_cast/pointer_cast.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
  78 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html#header.boost.type_index.runtime_cast.reference_cast_hpp">Header &lt;boost/type_index/runtime_cast/reference_cast.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
  79 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html#header.boost.type_index.runtime_cast.register_runtime_class_hpp">Header &lt;boost/type_index/runtime_cast/register_runtime_class.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
  80 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html#header.boost.type_index.runtime_cast.std_shared_ptr_cast_hpp">Header &lt;boost/type_index/runtime_cast/std_shared_ptr_cast.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
  81 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html#header.boost.type_index.stl_type_index_hpp">Header &lt;boost/type_index/stl_type_index.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
  82 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex_header_reference.html#header.boost.type_index.type_index_facade_hpp">Header &lt;boost/type_index/type_index_facade.hpp&gt;</a></span></dt>
  83 </dl></dd>
  84 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/making_a_custom_type_index.html">Making a custom
  85     type_index</a></span></dt>
  86 <dd><dl>
  87 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/making_a_custom_type_index.html#boost_typeindex.making_a_custom_type_index.basics">Basics</a></span></dt>
  88 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/making_a_custom_type_index.html#boost_typeindex.making_a_custom_type_index.getting_type_infos_at_runtime">Getting
  89       type infos at runtime</a></span></dt>
  90 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/making_a_custom_type_index.html#boost_typeindex.making_a_custom_type_index.using_new_type_infos_all_around_">Using
  91       new type infos all around the code</a></span></dt>
  92 </dl></dd>
  93 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/space_and_performance.html">Space and Performance</a></span></dt>
  94 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/code_bloat.html">Code bloat</a></span></dt>
  95 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/rtti_emulation_limitations.html">RTTI emulation
  96     limitations</a></span></dt>
  97 <dd><dl>
  98 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/rtti_emulation_limitations.html#boost_typeindex.rtti_emulation_limitations.define_the_boost_type_index_func">Define
  99       the BOOST_TYPE_INDEX_FUNCTION_SIGNATURE macro</a></span></dt>
 100 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/rtti_emulation_limitations.html#boost_typeindex.rtti_emulation_limitations.fixing_pretty_name_output">Fixing
 101       pretty_name() output</a></span></dt>
 102 </dl></dd>
 103 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/mixing_sources_with_rtti_on_and_.html">Mixing
 104     sources with RTTI on and RTTI off</a></span></dt>
 105 <dt><span class="section"><a href="boost_typeindex/acknowledgements.html">Acknowledgements</a></span></dt>
 106 </dl>
 107 </div>
 108 <div class="section">
 109 <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
 110 <a name="boost_typeindex.motivation"></a><a class="link" href="boost_typeindex.html#boost_typeindex.motivation" title="Motivation">Motivation</a>
 111 </h2></div></div></div>
 112 <p>
 113       Sometimes getting and storing information about a type at runtime is required.
 114       For such cases a construction like <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">&amp;</span><span class="keyword">typeid</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">T</span><span class="special">)</span></code> or C++11 class <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">type_index</span></code>
 115       is usually used, which is where problems start:
 116     </p>
 117 <div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
 118 <li class="listitem">
 119           <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">typeid</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">T</span><span class="special">)</span></code> and
 120           <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">type_index</span></code> require Run Time Type Info
 121           (RTTI)
 122         </li>
 123 <li class="listitem">
 124           some implementations of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">typeid</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">T</span><span class="special">)</span></code>
 125           erroneously do not strip const, volatile and references from type
 126         </li>
 127 <li class="listitem">
 128           some compilers have bugs and do not correctly compare <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">type_info</span></code>
 129           objects across shared libraries
 130         </li>
 131 <li class="listitem">
 132           only a few implementations of Standard Library currently provide <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">type_index</span></code>
 133         </li>
 134 <li class="listitem">
 135           no easy way to store type info without stripping const, volatile and references
 136         </li>
 137 <li class="listitem">
 138           no nice and portable way to get human readable type names
 139         </li>
 140 <li class="listitem">
 141           no way to easily make your own type info class
 142         </li>
 143 </ul></div>
 144 <p>
 145       Boost.TypeIndex library was designed to work around all those issues.
 146     </p>
 147 <div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
 148 <tr>
 149 <td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
 150 <th align="left">Note</th>
 151 </tr>
 152 <tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
 153         <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">T</span></code> means type here. Think
 154         of it as of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">T</span></code> in <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">template</span> <span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="keyword">class</span> <span class="identifier">T</span><span class="special">&gt;</span></code>
 155       </p></td></tr>
 156 </table></div>
 157 </div>
 158 </div>
 159 <table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr>
 160 <td align="left"><p><small>Last revised: April 17, 2017 at 02:30:57 GMT</small></p></td>
 161 <td align="right"><div class="copyright-footer"></div></td>
 162 </tr></table>
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