11 Classes [class]

11.5 Unions [class.union]

11.5.2 Anonymous unions [class.union.anon]

A union of the form

is called an anonymous union; it defines an unnamed type and an unnamed object of that type called an anonymous union member if it is a non-static data member or an anonymous union variable otherwise.

Each member-declaration in the member-specification of an anonymous union shall either define one or more public non-static data members or be a static_assert-declaration.

Nested types, anonymous unions, and functions shall not be declared within an anonymous union.

The names of the members of an anonymous union are bound in the scope inhabited by the union declaration.

[Example 1: void f() { union { int a; const char* p; }; a = 1; p = "Jennifer"; }

Here a and p are used like ordinary (non-member) variables, but since they are union members they have the same address.

— end example]

Anonymous unions declared in the scope of a namespace with external linkage shall be declared static.

Anonymous unions declared at block scope shall be declared with any storage class allowed for a block variable, or with no storage class.

A storage class is not allowed in a declaration of an anonymous union in a class scope.

[Note 1:

A union for which objects, pointers, or references are declared is not an anonymous union.

[Example 2: void f() { union { int aa; char* p; } obj, *ptr = &obj; aa = 1; // error ptr->aa = 1; // OK }

The assignment to plain aa is ill-formed since the member name is not visible outside the union, and even if it were visible, it is not associated with any particular object.

— end example]

— end note]

[Note 2:

Initialization of unions with no user-declared constructors is described in [dcl.init.aggr].

— end note]

A union-like class is a union or a class that has an anonymous union as a direct member.

A union-like class X has a set of variant members.

If X is a union, a non-static data member of X that is not an anonymous union is a variant member of X.

In addition, a non-static data member of an anonymous union that is a member of X is also a variant member of X.

At most one variant member of a union may have a default member initializer.

[Example 3: union U { int x = 0; union { int k; }; union { int z; int y = 1; // error: initialization for second variant member of U }; }; — end example]