variabeletype
Variabeletype is a proposed or hypothetical data type used in discussions of type systems to represent values with variable structure and size. A variabeletype combines a fixed-size descriptor, including a type tag and a length field, with a payload that can vary in length or structure. This arrangement allows a single value to encode different data shapes, enabling flexible serialization, inter-process communication, and protocol design.
In practice, implementations resemble tagged unions or variants with heap-allocated payloads, sometimes using inline small payloads
Safety requires validating the tag before accessing the payload and handling endianness and alignment correctly. Common
It is not a standard type in mainstream languages, but concepts similar to variants, sum types, and
See also: variant, tagged union, dynamic type, blob, serialization.