Standard library header <optional> (C++17)

 

C++

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Feature test macros (C++20)

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Concepts library (C++20)

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Strings library

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Ranges library (C++20)

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Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

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External libraries

 

Standard library headers

Language support <cfloat> <climits> <compare> (C++20) <coroutine> (C++20) <csetjmp> <csignal> <cstdarg> <cstddef> <cstdint> (C++11) <cstdlib> <exception> <initializer_list> (C++11)    <limits> <new> <source_location> (C++20) <stdfloat> (C++23) <typeinfo> <version> (C++20) Concepts <concepts> (C++20) Diagnostics <cassert> <cerrno> <debugging> (C++26) <stacktrace> (C++23) <stdexcept> <system_error> (C++11) Memory management <memory> <memory_resource> (C++17) <scoped_allocator> (C++11) Metaprogramming <type_traits> (C++11) <ratio> (C++11)

General utilities <any> (C++17) <bitset> <bit> (C++20) <charconv> (C++17) <expected> (C++23) <format> (C++20) <functional> <optional> (C++17) <tuple> (C++11) <typeindex> (C++11) <utility> <variant> (C++17) Containers <array> (C++11) <deque> <flat_map> (C++23) <flat_set> (C++23) <forward_list> (C++11) <inplace_vector> (C++26)    <list> <map> <mdspan> (C++23) <queue> <set> <span> (C++20) <stack> <unordered_map> (C++11) <unordered_set> (C++11) <vector> Iterators <iterator> Ranges <generator> (C++23) <ranges> (C++20)

Algorithms <algorithm> <numeric> Strings <cctype> <cstring> <cuchar> (C++11) <cwchar> <cwctype> <string_view> (C++17) <string> Text processing <clocale> <codecvt> (C++11/17/26*) <locale> <regex> (C++11) <text_encoding> (C++26)    Numerics <cfenv> (C++11) <cmath> <complex> <linalg> (C++26) <numbers> (C++20) <random> (C++11) <valarray> Time <chrono> (C++11) <ctime> C compatibility <ccomplex> (C++11/17/20*) <ciso646> (until C++20) <cstdalign> (C++11/17/20*) <cstdbool> (C++11/17/20*) <ctgmath> (C++11/17/20*)

Input/output <cinttypes> (C++11) <cstdio> <filesystem> (C++17) <fstream> <iomanip> <iosfwd> <iostream> <ios> <istream> <ostream> <print> (C++23) <spanstream> (C++23) <sstream> <streambuf> <strstream> (C++98/26*) <syncstream> (C++20) Concurrency support <atomic> (C++11) <barrier> (C++20) <condition_variable> (C++11) <future> (C++11) <hazard_pointer> (C++26) <latch> (C++20) <mutex> (C++11) <rcu> (C++26) <semaphore> (C++20) <shared_mutex> (C++14) <stdatomic.h> (C++23) <stop_token> (C++20) <thread> (C++11) Execution support <execution> (C++17)

 

Includes
<compare> (C++20)	Three-way comparison operator support
Classes
optional (C++17)	a wrapper that may or may not hold an object (class template)
bad_optional_access (C++17)	exception indicating checked access to an optional that doesn't contain a value (class)
std::hash<std::optional> (C++17)	hash support for std::optional (class template specialization)
nullopt_t (C++17)	indicator of an std::optional that does not contain a value (class)
Forward declarations
Defined in header <functional>
hash (C++11)	hash function object (class template)
Constants
nullopt (C++17)	an object of type nullopt_t (constant)
Functions
Comparison
operator==operator!=operator<operator<=operator>operator>=operator<=> (C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++17)(C++20)	compares optional objects (function template)
Specialized algorithms
std::swap(std::optional) (C++17)	specializes the std::swap algorithm (function template)
make_optional (C++17)	creates an optional object (function template)

Synopsis

#include <compare>
 
namespace std {
  // class template optional
  template<class T>
    class optional;
 
  template<class T>
    constexpr bool ranges::enable_view<optional<T>> = true;
  template<class T>
    constexpr auto format_kind<optional<T>> = range_format::disabled;
 
  template<class T>
    concept /*is-derived-from-optional*/ = requires(const T& t) { // exposition only
      []<class U>(const optional<U>&){ }(t);
    };
 
  // no-value state indicator
  struct nullopt_t{/* see description */};
  inline constexpr nullopt_t nullopt(/* unspecified */);
 
  // class bad_optional_access
  class bad_optional_access;
 
  // relational operators
  template<class T, class U>
    constexpr bool operator==(const optional<T>&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U>
    constexpr bool operator!=(const optional<T>&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U>
    constexpr bool operator<(const optional<T>&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U>
    constexpr bool operator>(const optional<T>&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U>
    constexpr bool operator<=(const optional<T>&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U>
    constexpr bool operator>=(const optional<T>&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, three_way_comparable_with<T> U>
    constexpr compare_three_way_result_t<T,U>
      operator<=>(const optional<T>&, const optional<U>&);
 
  // comparison with nullopt
  template<class T> constexpr bool operator==(const optional<T>&, nullopt_t) noexcept;
  template<class T>
    constexpr strong_ordering operator<=>(const optional<T>&, nullopt_t) noexcept;
 
  // comparison with T
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator==(const optional<T>&, const U&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator==(const T&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator!=(const optional<T>&, const U&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator!=(const T&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator<(const optional<T>&, const U&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator<(const T&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator>(const optional<T>&, const U&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator>(const T&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator<=(const optional<T>&, const U&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator<=(const T&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator>=(const optional<T>&, const U&);
  template<class T, class U> constexpr bool operator>=(const T&, const optional<U>&);
  template<class T, class U>
      requires (!/*is-derived-from-optional*/<U>) && three_way_comparable_with<T, U>
    constexpr compare_three_way_result_t<T, U>
      operator<=>(const optional<T>&, const U&);
 
  // specialized algorithms
  template<class T>
    constexpr void swap(optional<T>&, optional<T>&) noexcept(/* see description */);
 
  template<class T>
    constexpr optional<decay_t<T>> make_optional(T&&);
  template<class T, class... Args>
    constexpr optional<T> make_optional(Args&&... args);
  template<class T, class U, class... Args>
    constexpr optional<T> make_optional(initializer_list<U> il, Args&&... args);
 
  // hash support
  template<class T> struct hash;
  template<class T> struct hash<optional<T>>;
}

Class template std::optional

namespace std {
  template<class T>
  class optional {
  public:
    using value_type     = T;
    using iterator       = /* implementation-defined */;
    using const_iterator = /* implementation-defined */;  
 
    // constructors
    constexpr optional() noexcept;
    constexpr optional(nullopt_t) noexcept;
    constexpr optional(const optional&);
    constexpr optional(optional&&) noexcept(/* see description */);
    template<class... Args>
      constexpr explicit optional(in_place_t, Args&&...);
    template<class U, class... Args>
      constexpr explicit optional(in_place_t, initializer_list<U>, Args&&...);
    template<class U = T>
      constexpr explicit(/* see description */) optional(U&&);
    template<class U>
      constexpr explicit(/* see description */) optional(const optional<U>&);
    template<class U>
      constexpr explicit(/* see description */) optional(optional<U>&&);
 
    // destructor
    constexpr ~optional();
 
    // assignment
    constexpr optional& operator=(nullopt_t) noexcept;
    constexpr optional& operator=(const optional&);
    constexpr optional& operator=(optional&&) noexcept(/* see description */);
    template<class U = T> constexpr optional& operator=(U&&);
    template<class U> constexpr optional& operator=(const optional<U>&);
    template<class U> constexpr optional& operator=(optional<U>&&);
    template<class... Args> constexpr T& emplace(Args&&...);
    template<class U, class... Args> constexpr T& emplace(initializer_list<U>, Args&&...);
 
    // swap
    constexpr void swap(optional&) noexcept(/* see description */);
 
    // iterator support
    constexpr iterator begin() noexcept;
    constexpr const_iterator begin() const noexcept;
    constexpr iterator end() noexcept;
    constexpr const_iterator end() const noexcept;
 
    // observers
    constexpr const T* operator->() const noexcept;
    constexpr T* operator->() noexcept;
    constexpr const T& operator*() const& noexcept;
    constexpr T& operator*() & noexcept;
    constexpr T&& operator*() && noexcept;
    constexpr const T&& operator*() const&& noexcept;
    constexpr explicit operator bool() const noexcept;
    constexpr bool has_value() const noexcept;
    constexpr const T& value() const&;
    constexpr T& value() &;
    constexpr T&& value() &&;
    constexpr const T&& value() const&&;
    template<class U> constexpr T value_or(U&&) const&;
    template<class U> constexpr T value_or(U&&) &&;
 
    // monadic operations
    template <class F> constexpr auto and_then(F&& f) &;
    template <class F> constexpr auto and_then(F&& f) &&;
    template <class F> constexpr auto and_then(F&& f) const&;
    template <class F> constexpr auto and_then(F&& f) const&&;
    template <class F> constexpr auto transform(F&& f) &;
    template <class F> constexpr auto transform(F&& f) &&;
    template <class F> constexpr auto transform(F&& f) const&;
    template <class F> constexpr auto transform(F&& f) const&&;
    template <class F> constexpr optional or_else(F&& f) &&;
    template <class F> constexpr optional or_else(F&& f) const&;
 
    // modifiers
    constexpr void reset() noexcept;
 
  private:
    T *val;         // exposition only
  };
 
  template<class T>
    optional(T) -> optional<T>;
}