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For the record, I do agree with you, Bubba.
I don't have anything against unions, but for a newbie programmer, it may not be the best thing to be dumped at them in the beginning. They come from C,...

The replies thus far have indicated that it is indeed possible.
I also indicated that it was possible in my first reply.
However, I stand by grumpy that in this situation, such a thing would likely...

Don't go polluting these newbies' minds, now!
C++ is a type strict language. We should learn to play by the rules, not circumvent them!
Union is a C relic, too. Dangerous thing.

The short answer would be that you can't. Various solutions exist, but this is hardly a good place for such a solution.
In your example, the data you read is a string. A string can represent an...