Question

I know that you can get a reference to a static method like this:

typedef void (*pointer)();
pointer p = &MyClass::MyMethod;

But is there a way to get a reference to the class itself?

EDIT:
I’d like to store a class name to a variable so i could instantiate different kinds of objects based on the current value of the variable to a buffer or a list. I could then perform operations on the list of objects (using polymorphism).

Answer 1

No, “the class itself” is not an object that exists at runtime in C++ — it’s a compile-time concept only. Therefore you cannot get a reference or pointer to “a class object” per se, only to instances, functions (including static ones), and so on — things that do exist at runtime.

With RTTI you can get somewhat-similar effects, though — the typeid keyword gives you a reference to a std::type_info (you need to #include <typeinfo> to enable this) which “stands for” the type in question at runtime. (You may also need special compiler switches to enable this functionality, e.g. /GR for Microsoft’s Visual C++).

Whether that’s good enough for you depends on exactly what it is that you’re trying to accomplish. Care to clarify?