C++ to Objective-C conversions

This page shows what is automatically translated and to what. On the left is the C++ and to the right what the corresponding interface in Objective-C will be. Not converted means there will be no automatic translation to a corresponding language object.

Note that any restriction this poses only applies to the public interface of your code (e.g. your public headers). Your internal code can use anything from C++.

Conversion tables

C++	Objective-C translation
Namespace	Prefix*
Nested namespace	Prefix*
Class	Class
Public function	Class function
Private function	Not converted
Virtual function	???
Operator	???
Static member function	Static class function
Static member variable	Static class variable
Public const member variable	Readonly property
Public non const member variable	Readwrite property
Private member variable	Not converted
Global variable	Static class property**
Global static variable	Static class property**
Free function	Static class function**
Overloaded function	Class function***
Enum	NS_ENUM
Scoped enum	NS_ENUM
Templated class/function	Not converted****
Specialized class template	Class***
Specialized function template	Function***
Documentation	Documentation

* Prefix on all classes and free functions in the namespace.

** Wrapped in a class with a name that starts with the module name.

*** The naming convention for these classes and functions can be found under the Naming Convention page.

**** No direct translation to Objective-C. Will not emit warning.

C++ operator	Objective-C operator
operator+	???
operator-	???
operator*	???
operator/	???
operator%	???
operator+=	???
operator-=	???
operator*=	???
operator/=	???
operator%=	???
operator==	???
operator!=	???
operator>	???
operator>=	???
operator<	???
operator<=	???
operator[]	???
operator()	???
operator=	Not converted
operator<<	Not converted
operator>>	Not converted
operator++	Not converted
operator--	Not converted

C++ Standard library class	Objective-C translation
std::array	NSArray
std::complex	???
std::deque	NSArray
std::filesystem::path	NSString
std::forward_list	Not converted
std::function	???
std::list	NSArray
std::map	NSDictionary
std::multimap	Not converted
std::multiset	Not converted
std::optional	Value or nil
std::pair	NSArray
std::priority_queue	Not converted
std::queue	Not converted
std::set	NSOrderedSet
std::shared_ptr	Value*
std::stack	Not converted
std::string	NSString
std::string_view	NSString
std::tuple	NSArray
std::unique_ptr	Value
std::unordered_map	NSDictionary
std::unordered_multimap	Not converted
std::unordered_multiset	Not converted
std::unordered_set	NSSet
std::valarray	NSArray
std::variant	???
std::vector	NSArray

* After using a shared_ptr, the object is now always managed by a shared_ptr.

C++ builtin type	Objective-C translation
bool	bool
char	char
char16_t	char16_t
char32_t	char32_t
double	double
float	float
int	int
int8_t	int8_t
int16_t	int16_t
int32_t	int32_t
int64_t	int64_t
long double	long double
long int	long int
long long int	long long int
short int	short int
signed char	signed char
uint8_t	uint8_t
uint16_t	uint16_t
uint32_t	uint32_t
uint64_t	uint64_t
unsigned char	unsigned char
unsigned int	unsigned int
unsigned long int	unsigned long int
unsigned long long int	unsigned long long int
unsigned short int	unsigned short int
wchar_t	wchar_t
void	void