Boost C++ Libraries

namespace boost
{

namespace core
{
    std::string demangle( char const * name );

    char const * demangle_alloc( char const * name ) noexcept;
    void demangle_free( char const * demangled_name ) noexcept;

    class scoped_demangled_name
    {
    public:
        explicit scoped_demangled_name( char const * name ) noexcept;
        ~scoped_demangled_name() noexcept;
        char const * get() const noexcept;

        scoped_demangled_name( scoped_demangled_name const& ) = delete;
        scoped_demangled_name& operator= ( scoped_demangled_name const& ) = delete;
    };
}

}

The function boost::core::demangle is the conventional way to obtain demangled symbol name. It takes a mangled string such as those returned by typeid(T).name() on certain implementations such as g++, and returns its demangled, human-readable, form. In case if demangling fails (e.g. if name cannot be interpreted as a mangled name) the function returns name.

#include <boost/core/demangle.hpp>
#include <typeinfo>
#include <iostream>

template<class T> struct X
{
};

int main()
{
    char const * name = typeid( X<int> ).name();

    std::cout << name << std::endl; // prints 1XIiE
    std::cout << boost::core::demangle( name ) << std::endl; // prints X<int>
}

In some cases more low level interface may be desirable. For example:

The function boost::core::demangle_alloc performs name demangling and returns a pointer to a string with the demangled name, if succeeded, or nullptr otherwise. The returned pointer must be passed to boost::core::demangle_free to reclaim resources. Note that on some platforms the pointer returned by boost::core::demangle_alloc may refer to the string denoted by name, so this string must be kept immutable for the whole life time of the returned pointer.

The boost::core::scoped_demangled_name class is a scope guard that automates the calls to boost::core::demangle_alloc (on its construction) and boost::core::demangle_free (on destruction). The string with the demangled name can be obtained with its get method. Note that this method may return nullptr if demangling failed.

#include <boost/core/demangle.hpp>
#include <typeinfo>
#include <iostream>

template<class T> struct X
{
};

int main()
{
    char const * name = typeid( X<int> ).name();
    boost::core::scoped_demangled_name demangled( name );

    std::cout << name << std::endl; // prints 1XIiE
    std::cout << (demangled.get() ? demangled.get() : "[unknown]") << std::endl; // prints X<int>
}