Is there any std::empty struct or something similar or do I need to define my own:
struct empty{}; This can be used very nice in combination with std::conditional or other new std features and I wonder if the standard defines it or not.
4 Answers
There is a section to add this kind of construct as part of the Variant proposal (n4542).
After being voted on,
What do we want to call the “empty_t” stand-in type?
empty_t 4
empty 4
one_t 1
blank 6
blank_t 7
monostate 7Runoff:
blank* 3
monostate 8
the agreed upon name would be: std::monostate.
It would be defined the following way:
// 2.?, Explicitly default-constructed alternative struct monostate {}; bool operator<(const monostate&, const monostate&) constexpr { return false; } bool operator>(const monostate&, const monostate&) constexpr { return false; } bool operator<=(const monostate&, const monostate&) constexpr { return true; } bool operator>=(const monostate&, const monostate&) constexpr { return true; } bool operator==(const monostate&, const monostate&) constexpr { return true; } bool operator!=(const monostate&, const monostate&) constexpr { return false; } 
Comments
It is defined as std::monostate in header <variant>
struct monostate { }; It is used for example in std::variant ( a type-safe union ), where std::variant<std::monostate> represents an empty variant. Monostate makes variants default-constructible.
Comments
EDIT: with the introduction of std::monostate in C++17 this answer is outdated. See other answers for more information.
There is no such a thing in the c++ standard library. As mentioned in the comments, you can still find boost::blank in Boost which is probably what resembles the most to the class you are looking for. If such a class existed in the standard library, I don't think there would be so many third-party libraries defining their own struct empty {}.
If what you want is just a class with no data members and the smallest possible size - cannot be smaller than 1 - (and possibly benefit from the empty base optimization), you can still use std::tuple<>. It is actually used for that exact purpose (empty base optimization) in the implementation of some classes in the libstdc++.
If you want to make sure std::tuple<> really is an empty class:
#include <iostream> #include <tuple> #include <type_traits> int main() { // prints 1 std::cout << std::is_empty< std::tuple<> >::value; } 
Comments
If I understand your question correctly, you are looking for an error return type for using with std::conditional. Usually people define their own empty struct types for metaprogramming. This makes sense as it is usually not possible to design metaprogramming libraries in a way that they can easily interact with arbitrary other compile-time libraries.
The closest thing to a de-facto standard is probably Boost.MPL, so using something like mpl::void_ might make sense in your situation.
If you insist on sticking to Standard types, nullptr_t seems to be a good match.
std::tuple<>?