std::underlying_type

 

C++

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Named requirements

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Diagnostics library

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)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Technical Specifications

 

Utilities library

Language support Type support (basic types, RTTI, type traits)      Library feature-test macros (C++20) Dynamic memory management Program utilities Error handling Coroutine support (C++20) Variadic functions launder (C++17) initializer_list (C++11) source_location (C++20) Three-way comparison (C++20) 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_neqis_ltis_lteqis_gtis_gteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)(C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

General utilities Date and time Function objects bitset Formatting library (C++20) hash (C++11) integer_sequence (C++14) 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) forward (C++11) move (C++11) move_if_noexcept (C++11) as_const (C++17) to_underlying (C++23) 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) Elementary string conversions to_chars (C++17) from_chars (C++17) chars_format (C++17) Stacktrace stacktrace_entry (C++23) basic_stacktrace (C++23)

 

Type support

Basic types
Fundamental types
Fixed width integer types (C++11)
ptrdiff_t size_t max_align_t (C++11) byte (C++17)	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_empty (C++11) is_polymorphic (C++11) is_final (C++14) is_abstract (C++11) is_aggregate (C++17) is_trivial (C++11)	is_trivially_copyable (C++11) is_standard_layout (C++11) is_literal_type (C++11)(until C++20) is_pod (C++11)(deprecated in C++20) is_signed (C++11) is_unsigned (C++11) is_bounded_array (C++20) is_unbounded_array (C++20) is_scoped_enum (C++23)
has_unique_object_representations (C++17)
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)
Constant evaluation context
is_constant_evaluated (C++20)

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_convertibleis_nothrow_convertible (C++11)(C++20) is_layout_compatible (C++20) is_pointer_interconvertible_base_of (C++20) is_pointer_interconvertible_with_class (C++20) is_corresponding_member (C++20)	alignment_of (C++11) rank (C++11) extent (C++11) is_invocableis_invocable_ris_nothrow_invocableis_nothrow_invocable_r (C++17)(C++17)(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) remove_cvref (C++20) enable_if (C++11) void_t (C++17)	conditional (C++11) common_type (C++11) common_reference (C++20) underlying_type (C++11) result_ofinvoke_result (C++11)(until C++20)(C++17) type_identity (C++20)

 

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

If T is a complete enumeration (enum) type, provides a member typedef type that names the underlying type of T.

Otherwise, the behavior is undefined.	(until C++20)
Otherwise, if T is not an enumeration type, there is no member type. Otherwise (T is an incomplete enumeration type), the program is ill-formed.	(since C++20)

The behavior of a program that adds specializations for underlying_type is undefined.

Member types

Name	Definition
type	the underlying type of T

Helper types

template< class T > using underlying_type_t = typename underlying_type<T>::type;		(since C++14)

Notes

Each enumeration type has an underlying type, which can be

1. Specified explicitly (both scoped and unscoped enumerations)

2. Omitted, in which case it is int for scoped enumerations or an implementation-defined integral type capable of representing all values of the enum (for unscoped enumerations)

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <type_traits>
 
enum e1 {};
enum class e2 {};
enum class e3: unsigned {};
enum class e4: int {};
 
int main() {
 
  constexpr bool e1_t = std::is_same_v< std::underlying_type_t<e1>, int >;
  constexpr bool e2_t = std::is_same_v< std::underlying_type_t<e2>, int >;
  constexpr bool e3_t = std::is_same_v< std::underlying_type_t<e3>, int >;
  constexpr bool e4_t = std::is_same_v< std::underlying_type_t<e4>, int >;
 
  std::cout
    << "underlying type for 'e1' is " << (e1_t ? "int" : "non-int") << '\n'
    << "underlying type for 'e2' is " << (e2_t ? "int" : "non-int") << '\n'
    << "underlying type for 'e3' is " << (e3_t ? "int" : "non-int") << '\n'
    << "underlying type for 'e4' is " << (e4_t ? "int" : "non-int") << '\n'
    ;
}

Possible output:

underlying type for 'e1' is non-int
underlying type for 'e2' is int
underlying type for 'e3' is non-int
underlying type for 'e4' is int

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 2396	C++11	incomplete enumeration types were allowed	complete enumeration type required

See also

is_enum (C++11)	checks if a type is an enumeration type (class template)
is_scoped_enum (C++23)	checks if a type is a scoped enumeration type (class template)
to_underlying (C++23)	converts an enumeration to its underlying type (function template)