Unions and Classes in C++

C++ also supports unions as in C. They are functionally similar to that of a class but has the following limitations:

• All members are public by default
• Cannot be a base class to inherit other classes
• Cannot have virtual functions
• Cannot include static variable
• An object using a constructor and destructor cannot be a member of a union

One of the advantages of using Unions is that all data elements share the same memory. So they are commonly used when we require that the variables share a common memory. An example usage of union is shown below –

#include <iostreams.h>

main(){
       Union{
             int i;
             const char* name;
             };
        i = 21;
        name = "Tony";
        cout << "Name:" << name << " Age:" << i << "year";
}

The above is an example of Anonymous Union without a type name. This could not include member functions, private or protected regions as with usual union and if declared globally, it must be static.