std::experimental::optional
|   Defined in header  <experimental/optional>
  | 
||
|   template< class T > class optional;  | 
(library fundamentals TS) | |
The class template std::experimental::optional manages an optional contained value, i.e. a value that may or may not be present.
A common use case for optional is the return value of a function that may fail. As opposed to other approaches, such as std::pair<T,bool>, optional handles expensive to construct objects well and is more readable, as the intent is expressed explicitly.
Any instance of optional<T> at any given point in time either contains a value or does not contain a value.
If an optional<T> contains a value, the value is guaranteed to be allocated as part of the optional object footprint, i.e. no dynamic memory allocation ever takes place. Thus, an optional object models an object, not a pointer, even though the operator*() and operator->() are defined.
When an object of type optional<T> is contextually converted to bool, the conversion returns true if the object contains a value and false if it does not contain a value.
The optional object contains a value in the following conditions:
-  The object is initialized with a value of type 
T -  The object is assigned from another 
optionalthat contains a value. 
The object does not contain a value in the following conditions:
- The object is default-initialized.
 -  The object is initialized with a value of std::experimental::nullopt_t or an  
optionalobject that does not contain a value. -  The object is assigned from a value of std::experimental::nullopt_t or from an 
optionalthat does not contain a value 
Template parameters
| T | - | the type of the value to manage initialization state for. The type must meet the requirements of Destructible | 
Member types
| Member type | Definition | 
  value_type
 | 
  T
 | 
Member functions
|   constructs the optional object  (public member function)  | |
|   destroys the contained value, if there is one  (public member function)  | |
|    assigns contents  (public member function)  | |
 Observers | |
|    accesses the contained value  (public member function)  | |
|    checks whether the object contains a value  (public member function)  | |
|    returns the contained value  (public member function)  | |
|    returns the contained value if available, another value otherwise   (public member function)  | |
 Modifiers | |
|    exchanges the contents  (public member function)  | |
|    constructs the contained value in-place  (public member function)  | |
Member objects
| Member name | Definition | 
  val (private)
 | 
pointer to the contained value (which points at a data member of the same object), the name is for exposition only | 
Non-member functions
   compares optional objects  (function template)  | |
   creates an optional object  (function template)  | |
|    specializes the std::swap algorithm   (function)  | 
Helper classes
|    specializes the std::hash algorithm   (class template specialization)  | |
|    (library fundamentals TS)  | 
   indicator of optional type with uninitialized state   (class)  | 
|    (library fundamentals TS)  | 
   disambiguation tag type for in-place construction of optional types   (class)  | 
|    (library fundamentals TS)  | 
   exception indicating checked access to an optional that doesn't contain a value   (class)  | 
Helper objects
|    (library fundamentals TS)  | 
   an object of type nullopt_t  (function)  | 
|    (library fundamentals TS)  | 
   an object of type std::experimental::in_place_t   (function)  |