The Art of Assembly Language, 2nd Edition

4.33 Variant Types

One big use of unions in programs is to create variant types. A variant variable can change its type dynamically while the program is running. A variant object can be an integer at one point in the program, switch to a string at a different part of the program, and then change to a real value at a later time. Many very-high-level language (VHLL) systems use a dynamic type system (that is, variant objects) to reduce the overall complexity of the program; indeed, proponents of many VHLLs insist that the use of a dynamic typing system is one of the reasons you can write complex programs with so few lines of code using those languages. Of course, if you can create variant objects in a VHLL, you can certainly do it in assembly language. ...