Suppose I have a Shape base class and Circle, Line, and Point derived classes. I have two functions.
std::variant<Circle, Line, Point> process(const Shape &s);
Shape process(const Shape& s);
I can pass in any of my derived classes and return a Shape object in the second function, a variant is just a union that can hold any of my derived class variables at any given time.
Now with std::variant I can also employ a visitor where I can process some function depending on what type my variant is currently holding (I could just create a function object and pass it std::transform and apply it to each of my objects). However, I can just make that function virtual in my base class and have each derived class implement it.
So, is variant just a convenience?
So, is variant just a convenience?
No, they are different concepts. Main difference that on one side std::variant can work with unrelated types including builtins like int which is not possible with virtual functions directly. On another side std::variant must know types it is working with at compile time. For example it is possible to add a type with virtual function(s) by just linking additional object module without recompiling rest of the code or loading a shared library dynamically to existing application (you do not even have to restart the app) while with std::variant you must recompile code dealing with types std::variant contains.