Problem with anonymous union in C++

Hi

I wanted to use an anonymous union within an structure something like
below -

struct Test
{
union
{
std::string user; //char user[50];
std::string role; //char role[50];
};
std::string desc;
};

Whenever I use, built in data types such as int, char etc, it works perfectly fine, but for user defined dataypes, it gives me error -

error: member `std::string Test::<anonymous union>::user' with
constructor not allowed in union
error: member `std::string Test::<anonymous union>::user' with
destructor not allowed in union
error: member `std::string Test::<anonymous union>::user' with copy
assignment operator not allowed in union
error: member `std::string Test::<anonymous union>::role' with
constructor not allowed in union
error: member `std::string Test::<anonymous union>::role' with
destructor not allowed in union
error: member `std::string Test::<anonymous union>::role' with copy
assignment operator not allowed in union

Can someone give any idea, how to sort out the problem?

There's no workaround for this. Why don't you use the following:

class Test

Code:

---

{
private:
std::string user_or_role;
public:
std::string& get_user ()
{
return user_or_role;
}

std::string& get_role ()
{
return user_or_role;
}
std::string desc;
};

---