Type relations with std is sameT T

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The std::is_same<T, T> type relation is used to compare two types. It will evaluate as boolean, true if the types are the same and false if otherwise.

e.g.

// Prints true on most x86 and x86_64 compilers.
std::cout << std::is_same<int, int32_t>::value << "\n";
// Prints false on all compilers.
std::cout << std::is_same<float, int>::value << "\n";
// Prints false on all compilers.
std::cout  << std::is_same<unsigned int, int>::value << "\n";

The std::is_same type relation will also work regardless of typedefs. This is actually demonstrated in the first example when comparing int == int32_t however this is not entirely clear.

e.g.

// Prints true on all compilers.
typedef int MyType
std::cout << std::is_same<int, MyType>::value <<  "\n";

Using std::is_same to warn when improperly using a templated class or function.

When combined with a static assert the std::is_same template can be valuable tool in enforcing proper usage of templated classes and functions.

e.g. A function that only allows input from an int and a choice of two structs.

#include <type_traits>
struct foo {
  int member;
  // Other variables
};

struct bar {
  char member;
};

template<typename T>
int AddStructMember(T var1, int var2) {
  // If type T != foo || T != bar then show error message.
  static_assert(std::is_same<T, foo>::value || 
    std::is_same<T, bar>::value,
    "This function does not support the specified type.");
  return var1.member + var2;
}

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