std::common_type

 

C++

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Technical Specifications

 

Utilities library

Type support (basic types, RTTI, type traits)

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initializer_list (C++11)

bitset

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rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator>rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>=

Optional and any

optional (C++17)

any (C++17)

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pair

tuple (C++11)

apply (C++17)

piecewise_construct_t (C++11)

piecewise_construct (C++11)

integer_sequence (C++14)

Swap, forward and move

swap

exchange (C++14)

forward (C++11)

move (C++11)

move_if_noexcept (C++11)

Type operations

declval (C++11)

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Type support

Basic types
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ptrdiff_t size_t max_align_t (C++11)	nullptr_t (C++11) offsetof NULL
Numeric limits
numeric_limits
C numeric limits interface
Runtime type information
type_info type_index (C++11)	bad_typeid bad_cast
Type traits
Type categories
is_void (C++11) is_null_pointer (C++14) is_array (C++11) is_pointer (C++11) is_enum (C++11) is_union (C++11) is_class (C++11) is_function (C++11)	is_object (C++11) is_scalar (C++11) is_compound (C++11) is_integral (C++11) is_floating_point (C++11) is_fundamental (C++11) is_arithmetic (C++11)
is_reference (C++11)
is_lvalue_reference (C++11)
is_rvalue_reference (C++11)
is_member_pointer (C++11)
is_member_object_pointer (C++11)
is_member_function_pointer (C++11)

Type properties
is_const (C++11) is_volatile (C++11) is_pod (C++11) is_empty (C++11) is_polymorphic (C++11) is_final (C++14) is_abstract (C++11)	is_trivial (C++11) is_trivially_copyable (C++11) is_standard_layout (C++11) is_literal_type (C++11) is_signed (C++11) is_unsigned (C++11)
Type trait constants
integral_constantbool_constanttrue_typefalse_type (C++11)(C++17)(C++11)(C++11)
Metafunctions
conjunction (C++17)
disjunction (C++17)
negation (C++17)

Supported operations
is_constructibleis_trivially_constructibleis_nothrow_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_default_constructibleis_trivially_default_constructibleis_nothrow_default_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_copy_constructibleis_trivially_copy_constructibleis_nothrow_copy_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_move_constructibleis_trivially_move_constructibleis_nothrow_move_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_assignableis_trivially_assignableis_nothrow_assignable (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_copy_assignableis_trivially_copy_assignableis_nothrow_copy_assignable (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_move_assignableis_trivially_move_assignableis_nothrow_move_assignable (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_destructibleis_trivially_destructibleis_nothrow_destructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
has_virtual_destructor (C++11)
is_swappable_withis_swappableis_nothrow_swappable_withis_nothrow_swappable (C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++17)
Relationships and property queries
is_same (C++11) is_base_of (C++11) is_convertible (C++11)	alignment_of (C++11) rank (C++11) extent (C++11)
is_callableis_nothrow_callable (C++17)(C++17)
Type modifications
remove_cvremove_constremove_volatile (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) add_cvadd_constadd_volatile (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) make_signed (C++11) make_unsigned (C++11)	remove_reference (C++11) add_lvalue_referenceadd_rvalue_reference (C++11)(C++11) remove_pointer (C++11) add_pointer (C++11) remove_extent (C++11) remove_all_extents (C++11)
Type transformations
aligned_storage (C++11) aligned_union (C++11) decay (C++11) enable_if (C++11) void_t (C++17)	conditional (C++11) common_type (C++11) underlying_type (C++11) result_of (C++11)

 

Defined in header <type_traits>
template< class... T > struct common_type;		(since C++11)

Determines the common type among all types T..., that is the type all T... can be implicitly converted to.

For non-specialized std::common_type, the rules for determining the common type between every pair T1, T2 are exactly the rules for determining the return type of the ternary conditional operator in unevaluated context, with arbitrary first argument of type bool and with xvalues of type T1 and T2 (since C++17)std::declval<T1>() and std::declval<T2>() (until C++17) as the second and the third operands. The common type is the result of std::decay applied to the type of the ternary conditional (since C++14).

If sizeof...(T) is zero or if there is no common type, the member type is not defined (std::common_type is SFINAE-friendly)

(since C++17)

Member types

Name	Definition
type	the common type for all T...

Helper types

template< class... T > using common_type_t = typename common_type<T...>::type;		(since C++14)

Specializations

Custom specializations of the type trait std::common_type are allowed, as long as at least one parameter is a user-defined type (note that the behavior of a program that adds a specialization to any other class from <type_traits> is undefined).

The following specializations are already provided by the standard library:

std::common_type<std::chrono::duration>	specializes the std::common_type trait (class template specialization)
std::common_type<std::chrono::time_point>	specializes the std::common_type trait (class template specialization)

Possible implementation

template <class ...T> struct common_type;   template <class T> struct common_type<T> { typedef decay_t<T> type; };   template <class T, class U> struct common_type<T, U> { typedef decay_t<decltype(true ? std::declval<T>() : std::declval<U>())> type; };   template <class T, class U, class... V> struct common_type<T, U, V...> { typedef common_type_t<common_type_t<T, U>, V...> type; };

Notes

For arithmetic types, the common type may be viewed as the type of the (possibly mixed-mode) arithmetic expression such as T0() + T1() + ... + Tn().

Examples

Demonstrates mixed-mode arithmetic on a user-defined class

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <type_traits>
 
template <class T>
struct Number { T n; };
 
template <class T, class U>
Number<typename std::common_type<T, U>::type> operator+(const Number<T>& lhs,
                                                        const Number<U>& rhs) 
{
    return {lhs.n + rhs.n};
}
 
int main()
{
    Number<int> i1 = {1}, i2 = {2};
    Number<double> d1 = {2.3}, d2 = {3.5};
    std::cout << "i1i2: " << (i1 + i2).n << "\ni1d2: " << (i1 + d2).n << '\n'
              << "d1i2: " << (d1 + i2).n << "\nd1d2: " << (d1 + d2).n << '\n';
}

Output:

i1i2: 3
i1d2: 4.5
d1i2: 4.3
d1d2: 5.8