Is there a variable data type available for Arduino? I have a class that should have a member that will differ in data type, in the past I have used the "variable" keyword in c++ but when I tried to use it the compiler yelled at me. I searched online and found a couple of articles that mentioned that if you are using an alternate GUI (I am using eclipse mars) that you can enable the feature but I can not find the correct settings as the examples I had found were for Juno and below.

Here is an example of what I am trying to accomplish

class DisplayItem{
   
   public:
   variant *displayVar;

   void Display(){
      Serial.println(displayVar);
   }
}

int intDisplay;
String strDisplay;

DisplayItem item();
item.displayVar = &intDisplay;
item.Display();
item.displayVar = &strDisplay;
item.Display();

I realize I could create a overloaded function to display different data types but it would be allot easier if I could simply assign a reference to a variant datatype and reuse the variable.

Is there a variable data type available for Arduino? I have a class that should have a member that will differ in data type, in the past I have used the "variable" keyword in c++ but when I tried to use it the compiler yelled at me. I searched online and found a couple of articles that mentioned that if you are using an alternate GUI (I am using eclipse mars) that you can enable the feature but I can not find the correct settings as the examples I had found were for Juno and below.

Here is an example of what I am trying to accomplish

class DisplayItem{
   
   public:
   variant *displayVar;

   void Display(){
      Serial.println(displayVar);
   }
}

int intDisplay;
String strDisplay;

DisplayItem item();
item.displayVar = &intDisplay;
item.Display();
item.displayVar = &strDisplay;
item.Display();

I realize I could create a overloaded function to display different data types but it would be allot easier if I could simply assign a reference to a variant datatype and reuse the variable.

Edit

So after looking through the answers I think I have this figured out. I needed to keep track of which variable was being set, I put together a quick example in hopes it will help someone else out with the same question.

class DisplayItem{
   
   private:
   int iVarType;

   union{
      int *i;
      float *f;
   } displayVar;

   public:
   void SetVar(int *var){
      displayVar.i = var;
      iVarType = 0;
   }

   void SetVar(float *var){
      displayVar.f = var;
      iVarType = 1;
   }

   void Display(){
      if (iVarType == 0){
         Serial.println(displayVar.i);
      }else if (iVarType == 1){
         Serial.println(displayVar.f);
      }
   }
}

int intDisplay = 1;
float floatDisplay = 0.123;

DisplayItem item();
item.SetVar(&intDisplay);
item.Display();
item.SetVar(&floatDisplay);
item.Display();

Will Display:

1
0.123