C++ to python 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 python will be. Not converted means there will be no automatic translation to a corresponding python object (for example std::queue does not automatically translate to queue.Queue). Note that any restriction this poses only applies to the public interface of your code (e.g. your public headers).

Conversion tables

C++	Python translation
Namespace	Module
Nested namespace	Submodule
Class	Class
Public function	Class function
Private function	Not converted
Virtual function	Overridable function
Operator	Operator
Static member function	Static class function
Static member variable	Static class variable
Public const member variable	Read only property
Public non const member variable	Read write property
Private member variable	Not converted
Global variable	Module variable
Global static variable	Static module variable
Free function	Module function
Overloaded function	Module function*
Enum	Enum
Scoped enum	Enum
Templated class/function	Not converted**
Specialized class template	Class***
Specialized function template	Function****
Documentation*	Documentation

* Will try to match arguments to types provided.

** No direct translation to python. Will not emit warning.

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

**** Functions with different template arguments will behave as overloaded functions.

***** Refers to documentation comments before namespaces, functions, classes etc. See the examples for more information.

C++ operator	Python operator
operator+	__add__
operator-	__sub__
operator*	__mul__
operator/	__truediv__
operator%	__mod__
operator+=	__iadd__
operator-=	__isub__
operator*=	__imul__
operator/=	__itruediv__
operator%=	__imod__
operator==	__eq__
operator!=	__ne__
operator>	__gt__
operator>=	__ge__
operator<	__lt__
operator<=	__ge__
operator[]	__getitem__
operator()	__call__
operator=	Not converted
operator<<	Not converted
operator>>	Not converted
operator++	Not converted
operator--	Not converted

C++ Standard library class	Python translation
std::array	array
std::complex	complex
std::deque	array
std::filesystem::path	pathlib.Path
std::forward_list	Not converted
std::function	function
std::list	array
std::map	dict
std::multimap	Not converted
std::multiset	Not converted
std::optional	None || value
std::pair	tuple
std::priority_queue	Not converted
std::queue	Not converted
std::set	set
std::shared_ptr	value
std::stack	Not converted
std::tuple	tuple
std::unique_ptr	value*
std::shared_ptr	value**
std::unordered_map	dict
std::unordered_multimap	Not converted
std::unordered_multiset	Not converted
std::unordered_set	set
std::valarray	array
std::variant	value
std::vector	array

* Note that due to how python works internally, function argument of type std::unique_ptr is not allowed. For more info see the pybind11 documentation on smart pointers.

** When a user defined struct/class is managed by std::shared_ptr, it is marked as such in the resulting pybind11. For more info see the pybind11 documentation on smart pointers.

C++ builtin type	Python translation
bool	bool
char	str
char16_t	str
char32_t	str
double	float
float	float
int	int
int8_t	int
int16_t	int
int32_t	int
int64_t	int
long double	int
long int	int
long long int	int
short int	int
signed char	str
string	str
string_view	str
uint8_t	int
uint16_t	int
uint32_t	int
uint64_t	int
unsigned char	str
unsigned int	int
unsigned long int	int
unsigned long long int	int
unsigned short int	int
wchar_t	str