std::variant_npos

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Execution support library (C++26)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Utilities library

Language support Type support (basic types, RTTI) Library feature-test macros (C++20) Dynamic memory management Program utilities Coroutine support (C++20) Variadic functions is_constant_evaluated (C++20) is_within_lifetime (C++26) initializer_list (C++11) source_location (C++20) Three-way comparison three_way_comparablethree_way_comparable_with (C++20)(C++20) strong_ordering (C++20) weak_ordering (C++20) partial_ordering (C++20) common_comparison_category (C++20) compare_three_way_result (C++20) compare_three_way (C++20) strong_order (C++20) weak_order (C++20) partial_order (C++20) compare_strong_order_fallback (C++20) compare_weak_order_fallback (C++20) compare_partial_order_fallback (C++20)   is_eqis_ltis_lteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)   is_neqis_gtis_gteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

General utilities Date and time Function objects Formatting library (C++20)   bitset hash (C++11) Relational operators (deprecated in C++20) rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator>    rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>= Integer comparison functions cmp_equalcmp_lesscmp_less_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)   cmp_not_equalcmp_greatercmp_greater_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20) in_range (C++20) Swap and type operations swap ranges::swap (C++20) exchange (C++14) declval (C++11) to_underlying (C++23) forward (C++11) forward_like (C++23) move (C++11) move_if_noexcept (C++11) as_const (C++17) Common vocabulary types pair tuple (C++11) optional (C++17) any (C++17) variant (C++17) tuple_size (C++11) tuple_element (C++11) apply (C++17) make_from_tuple (C++17) expected (C++23) Elementary string conversions to_chars (C++17) from_chars (C++17) chars_format (C++17) to_chars_result (C++17) from_chars_result (C++17)

 

std::variant

Member functions

variant::variant

variant::~variant

variant::operator=

Observers

variant::index

variant::valueless_by_exception

Modifiers

variant::emplace

variant::swap

Visitation

variant::visit (C++26)

Non-member functions

visit

holds_alternative

get(std::variant)

get_if

operator==operator!=operator<operator<=operator>operator>=operator<=> (C++20)

swap(std::variant)

Helper classes

monostate

bad_variant_access

variant_size

variant_alternative

hash<std::variant>

Helper objects

variant_npos

 

Defined in header <variant>
inline constexpr std::size_t variant_npos = -1;		(since C++17)

This is a special value equal to the largest value representable by the type std::size_t, used as the return value of index() when valueless_by_exception() is true.

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <string>
#include <variant>
 
struct Demon
{
    Demon(int) {}
    Demon(const Demon&) { throw std::domain_error("copy ctor"); }
    Demon& operator= (const Demon&) = default;
};
 
int main()
{
    std::variant<int, Demon> var{42};
    std::cout
        << std::boolalpha
        << "index == npos: " << (var.index() == std::variant_npos) << '\n';
 
    try { var = Demon{666}; } catch (const std::domain_error& ex)
    {
        std::cout
            << "Exception: " << ex.what() << '\n'
            << "index == npos: " << (var.index() == std::variant_npos) << '\n'
            << "valueless: " << var.valueless_by_exception() << '\n';
    }
}

Possible output:

index == npos: false
Exception: copy ctor
index == npos: true
valueless: true

See also

index	returns the zero-based index of the alternative held by the variant (public member function)
valueless_by_exception	checks if the variant is in the invalid state (public member function)