Re: [Boost-users] [serialization][any]Do wehaveserializationsupportfor boost::any?

From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-09-29 10:35:31

Vladimir Prus wrote:
> So, my original question stands -- it is even possible to make
> boost::any serializable?

I've spent a few minutes looking at boost::any and don't see any obvious way 
to do it in a general way.  If it is possible, it would only be so by 
depending on or expanding upon implementation of serialization.

So, what can I suggest?  Here are some very preliminary thoughts.

The difficulty in serializing boost::any is that we only know which type is 
being serialized at runtime.  If we know the possible types that our 
instance of boost::any might contain we might be able to use something like:

struct my_class {
    boost::any m_any;
    ...
};

template<class Archive>
void my_class::save(Archive & ar,  const unsigned int version){
    // define which types we think we will be using
    // (be prepared  for bad_anycast exception);
    boost::variant<int, char, bool> v = m_any;
    ar <<  v;
}

template<class Archive>
void my_class::load(Archive & ar,  const unsigned int version){
    // define which types we think we will be = m_any;
    boost::variant<int, char, bool> v;
    ar >>  v;
    m_any = v;
}

This is merely speculative so i have no idea whether it would really work or 
not.

Robert Ramey