Comparing reflection capabilities of C++, Zig and C3
This article compares the compile-time reflection capabilities of C++, Zig, and the newer C3 programming language. It highlights how each language handles type inspection and manipulation without incurring runtime costs.
Why it matters
Understanding these language features is critical for systems programmers aiming to balance performance with code maintainability and readability.
nyr24 Sep 20, 2026 Comparing reflection capabilities of C++, Zig and C3
Reflection lets a program inspect and manipulate its own structure at runtime or compile time. All C++ (with its upcoming reflection support), Zig and C3 rely on compile-time reflection, so you can reason about types, enumerators, and struct members without any runtime cost. In this post I will compare how these languages approach compile-time reflection.
C3 is a relatively new programming language which mainly focuses on readability, performance, minimalism, and familiarity for C/C++ programmers. It doesn't have heavy runtime, garbage collection, exceptions or RAII. It also fully supports C ABI compatibility out of the box.
C3 uses special syntax for compile-time execution: all variables, control-flow constructs are prefixed with $ . This was done on purpose to explicitly show the reader which code runs at compile time. It uses macros for compile-time evaluation and reflection.
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