Type erasure in C allows different types to be treated uniformly through a common interface without templates or inheritance, achieved by combining templates and polymorphism; 1) a virtual base class (Concept) defines the interface, 2) a template derived class (Model) adapts any type to this interface, 3) the concrete type is erased when stored as a base pointer, enabling heterogeneous collections and dynamic behavior with runtime overhead from virtual calls and dynamic allocation, as demonstrated by the AnyPrintable class that can hold and operate on arbitrary types while exposing only print and size operations.
Type erasure in C is a technique used to hide the concrete type of an object behind a uniform interface, allowing different types to be treated uniformly without templates or inheritance. It's commonly used in libraries like std::function
, std::any
, and std::variant
. Here's a practical and simple example to demonstrate how type erasure works.

Simple Type Erasure: A Type-Erased Holder
Suppose we want to create a container that can hold any type, but expose only a few operations — like printing or getting the size — without knowing the actual type at compile time.
#include <iostream> #include <memory> #include <string> class AnyPrintable { struct Concept { virtual ~Concept() = default; virtual void print() const = 0; virtual size_t size() const = 0; }; template<typename T> struct Model : Concept { T data; Model(T value) : data(std::move(value)) {} void print() const override { std::cout << data; } size_t size() const override { if constexpr (requires { data.size(); }) { return data.size(); } else { return 1; } } }; std::unique_ptr<Concept> p_obj; public: template<typename T> AnyPrintable(T value) : p_obj(std::make_unique<Model<T>>(std::move(value))) {} void print() const { if (p_obj) p_obj->print(); } size_t size() const { if (p_obj) return p_obj->size(); return 0; } };
Usage Example
int main() { AnyPrintable a = 42; AnyPrintable b = std::string("Hello, world!"); AnyPrintable c = std::vector<int>{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}; a.print(); std::cout << " (size: " << a.size() << ")\n"; b.print(); std::cout << " (size: " << b.size() << ")\n"; c.print(); std::cout << " (size: " << c.size() << ")\n"; return 0; }
Output:

42 (size: 1) Hello, world! (size: 13) 12345 (size: 5)
How It Works
- Concept: Defines the interface (what operations are allowed).
- Model
: Template that adapts any type T
to satisfy the concept. - Type Erasure: Once stored, the actual type
T
is erased — only theConcept
interface is used. - No Templates in Interface: Users of
AnyPrintable
don’t need to be templates.
This is similar to how std::function<void()>
can store a lambda, function pointer, or functor — all different types erased behind one interface.
Key Benefits
Enables heterogeneous collections:
std::vector<AnyPrintable> items = {42, std::string("hi"), 3.14}; for (const auto& item : items) { item.print(); std::cout << "\n"; }
Avoids inheritance hierarchies (no need for all types to derive from a base class).
Keeps interface simple and clean.
- Uses dynamic allocation (can be optimized with small object optimization).
- Runtime overhead due to virtual calls (vs. compile-time templates).
- Not a replacement for templates — it’s a tool for specific use cases where dynamic behavior is needed.
Notes and Trade-offs
This example shows the core idea: wrap a type in a template, inherit from a common interface, and store via a pointer to that interface — the type is "erased" from the outside view.
Basically just a blend of templates and polymorphism to get the best of both worlds.
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