In Place Construction

std::variant and in_place helpers

std::variant has two in_place helpers that you can use:

• std::in_place_type - used to specify which type you want to change/set in the variant

• std::in_place_index - used to specify which index you want to change/set. Types are enumerated from 0.

• In a variant std::variant<int, float, std::string> - int has the index 0, float has index 1 and the string has index of 2. The index is the same value as returned from variant::index method.

Fortunately, you don’t always have to use the helpers to create a variant. It’s smart enough to recognize if it can be constructed from the passed single parameter:

// this constructs the second float
std::variant<int, float, std::string> intFloatString { 10.5f };

For variant we need the helpers for at least two cases:

• ambiguity - to distinguish which type should be created​ where several could match

• efficient complex type creation (similar to optional)