Normally I''d look this up myself, but I haven''t had much luck with Google since this problem is difficult to summarize with keywords. I am building a dictionary class which is essentially a std::map with a string for the key and a custom class for the value. The custom class is an object that is capable of storing strings, ints, doubles, etc. using a void * which points to a block of memory. The intent is to be able to store settings in their native type and then cast them as needed. I have two questions. First, is this a braindead way of doing this? Would it make more sense to just convert the data into a string when I store it and then convert it back when it''s requested. This is what I normally see, but it seems like a terrible waste of space (and CPU cycles). This probably isn''t a big deal in my case, but I don''t want to limit myself down the road. If it makes sense to do what I''m attempting, how do I refernce the void * as an integer (see GetIntValue() function). What I''m doing compiles, but it gives me a nasty warning: pointer truncation from ''void **__w64 '' to ''int''. void * m_data; void DictionaryItem::SetValue ( int value ) { m_dataSize = sizeof ( int ); m_data = malloc ( m_dataSize ); memcpy ( m_data, &value, m_dataSize ); } int DictionaryItem::GetIntValue ( void ) { return (int) &m_data; } bpopp (bpopp.net)

You''ve mixed up dereferencing and address of operators.

Use this snippet of code, if m_Data is a * of any type:
return *(int*) m_Data;

In words, cast the pointer to an int* and then dereference it.

Promit: great, thanks. I''ll give that a try. I originally had *m_data, but that wouldn''t compile (for reasons which are obvious now).

Thanks also to Sneftel for the Boost reference. That looks very similar to what I''m trying to do.

bpopp (bpopp.net)