I'm looking for something like __PRETTY_FUNCTION__ for a variable (or a object). It want to do struct uniform { uniform() { cout << "A variable called " << __PRETTY_VARNAME__ << " was just instantinated (sp)" << endl; } }; void main() { uniform blah; } and get "A variable called blah was just instantinated" as program output. This must work at runtime. Is there a identifier or macro which holds the desired value?