I'm using a collection of boost::any for the variable container class which has this map member. std::map<std::string, boost::any> m_collection; As you imagine, the container class can keep anything even the container class itself recursively. You know, an boost::any may hold copy expensive object. So I need a method to get the reference of the value held in boost::any not to make the expensive copy. But I found that the current any_cast implementation was not well support the reference. Issue 1: The following code causes compiler error on VC6&7. boost::any dany = double(1.2); double& rd = boost::any_cast<double>(dany); Issue 2: The following code works but one copy constructer called. class Foo foo; boost::any fany( foo ); class Foo& rfoo = boost::any_cast<class Foo>(fany); Actually, I found the way to sneak out of the issues. double& rd = *boost::any_cast<double>(&dany); class Foo& rfoo = *boost::any_cast<class Foo>(&fany); But the problem is these codes won't throw bad_any_cast. And I also wonder this *any_cast usage may not be the way the developer supposed. So I expect that the current any_cast code will be changed to well support the reference access. It can be, template<typename ValueType> const ValueType& any_cast(const any & operand) { const ValueType * result = any_cast<ValueType>(&operand); if(!result) throw bad_any_cast(); return *result; } template<typename ValueType> ValueType& any_cast(any & operand) { ValueType * result = any_cast<ValueType>(&operand); if(!result) throw bad_any_cast(); return *result; } -Seishi