Return any type of object from a method

Question

I have the following code:

struct SResponse
{
 SResponse(bool state, std::any value) : _state(state), _value(value) {}
 bool        _state = false;
 std::any    _value;
};

CSomeClass
{
public:
 SResponse GetResponse();
};

// implementation
SResponse CSomeClass::GetResponse()
{
 std:string message{"Aloha"};
 SResponse res(true, std::make_any<std::string>(message);

 return res;
}

Using code:

CSomeClass some;
std::any result = some.GetResponse();
std::string message{};
try { message = std::any_cast<std::string>(result.second); }
catch (...) {}

In fact, I have returned std::any. But I want to replace this with something else. But what ? As you can see, in std::any I can put anything, but what can I use instead of std::any ? Because std::any take pretty much memory at 64bit apps. Beside that, std::any is available only from c++17, and this could not be used on old code.

Answer 1

Hello,
what is the benefit of this code?
I suggest you should use templates instead. templates

Regards, Guido