Can C Containers Store Data of Different Types?

Heterogeneous Containers in C

In the STL container classification, some requirements remain unmet, namely variable size and heterogeneous (data of different types). It's reasonable to ask if C provides any solutions for this use case.

Typically, C containers are designed to hold objects of a single type, but you can utilize pointers or boost::any to accommodate different types:

Using Pointers:

You can store a container of pointers to the base type, allowing you to hold objects derived from that type:

<code class="cpp">std::vector<MyBaseType*>;</code>

Using boost::any:

Boost provides boost::any, which allows you to store objects of any type safely:

<code class="cpp">using boost::any_cast;
typedef std::list<boost::any> many;</code>

You can then use any_cast to cast the objects to the desired types.

Using boost::variant:

Boost::variant is another option that allows you to specify a set of allowed types:

<code class="cpp">std::vector<boost::variant<unsigned, std::string>>;</code>

However, it's important to note that boost::any and boost::variant have some performance and memory overhead compared to standard STL containers.

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