std::common_type

 

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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)
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Type transformations
aligned_storage (C++11) aligned_union (C++11) decay (C++11) enable_if (C++11)	conditional (C++11) common_type (C++11) underlying_type (C++11) result_of (C++11)
Type trait constants
integral_constant (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.

• std::common_type may be specialized for custom types, e.g. std::chrono::time_point.
• 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 where T1 and T2 are the types of its 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).
• For arithmetic types, the common type may also be viewed as the type of the (possibly mixed-mode) arithmetic expression such as T0() + T1() + ... + Tn().

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 ? declval<T>() : 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; };

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