Best way to store large amounts of different types of data?

I want to store a buffer data. I will have to append data to data in the form of BYTEs, WORDs, and DWORDs. What 开发者_C百科is the best way to implement data? Is there something in the STL for this?

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From the little you've said, it sounds like you want to have different types in an STL container. There are two ways to do this:

1. Have a hierarchy of objects and store a reference/pointer to them (i.e. std::vector< boost::shared_ptr<MyBaseObject> >
2. Use boost::variant (i.e. std::vector< boost::variant<BYTE, WORD, DWORD> >)

If, however, you need to interface with some legacy C code, or send raw data over the network, this might not be the best solution.

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If you want to create a contiguous buffer of completely unstructured data, consider using std::vector<char>:

// Add an item to the end of the buffer, ignoring endian issues
template<class T>
addToVector(std::vector<char>& v, T t)
{
  v.insert(v.end(), reinterpret_cast<char*>(&t), reinterpret_cast<char*>(&t+1));
}

// Add an item to end of the buffer, with consistent endianness
template<class T>
addToVectorEndian(std::vector<char>&v, T t)
{
  for(int i = 0; i < sizeof(T); ++i) {
    v.push_back(t);
    t >>= 8; // Or, better: CHAR_BIT
  }
}