c++ - typeid doesn't return correct type

Question

cout << typeid(int&).name();  

This, in my opinion, should return int& as a type, not an int, but on GCC 4.5.1 and on VS2010 SP1 beta it returns int. Why is this?

Answer 1

This is how typeid is supposed to work. When you apply typeid to a type-id of a reference type, the type_info object refers to the referenced type.

ISO/IEC 14882:2003, 5.2.8 / 4 [expr.typeid]:

When typeid is applied to a type-id, the result refers to a type_info object representing the type of the type-id. If the type of the type-id is a reference type, the result of the typeid expression refers to a type_info object representing the referenced type. If the type of the type-id is a class type or a reference to a class type, the class shall be completely-defined. Types shall not be defined in the type-id.