6/3/2021 Type conversions - C++ Tutorials

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Tutorials Type conversions

C++ Language
Ascii Codes Implicit conversion
Boolean Operations
Implicit conversions are automatically performed when a value is copied to a compatible type. For example:
Numerical Bases

C++ Language 1 short a=2000;

Introduction:
2 int b;
3 b=a;
Compilers
Basics of C++:
Structure of a program
Variables and types
Here, the value of a is promoted from short to int without the need of any explicit operator. This is known as a
standard conversion. Standard conversions affect fundamental data types, and allow the conversions between
Constants
numerical types (short to int, int to float, double to int...), to or from bool, and some pointer conversions.
Operators
Basic Input/Output
Converting to int from some smaller integer type, or to double from float is known as promotion, and is guaranteed to
Program structure: produce the exact same value in the destination type. Other conversions between arithmetic types may not always be
Statements and flow control able to represent the same value exactly:
Functions
Overloads and templates If a negative integer value is converted to an unsigned type, the resulting value corresponds to its 2's
Name visibility complement bitwise representation (i.e., -1 becomes the largest value representable by the type, -2 the second
Compound data types: largest, ...).
Arrays The conversions from/to bool consider false equivalent to zero (for numeric types) and to null pointer (for
Character sequences pointer types); true is equivalent to all other values and is converted to the equivalent of 1.
Pointers
If the conversion is from a floating-point type to an integer type, the value is truncated (the decimal part is
removed). If the result lies outside the range of representable values by the type, the conversion causes
Dynamic memory
undefined behavior.
Data structures
Otherwise, if the conversion is between numeric types of the same kind (integer-to-integer or floating-to-
Other data types
floating), the conversion is valid, but the value is implementation-specific (and may not be portable).
Classes:
Classes (I)
Classes (II) Some of these conversions may imply a loss of precision, which the compiler can signal with a warning. This warning
Special members can be avoided with an explicit conversion.
Friendship and inheritance
Polymorphism For non-fundamental types, arrays and functions implicitly convert to pointers, and pointers in general allow the
Other language features: following conversions:
Type conversions
Null pointers can be converted to pointers of any type
Exceptions
Pointers to any type can be converted to void pointers.
Preprocessor directives Pointer upcast: pointers to a derived class can be converted to a pointer of an accessible and unambiguous base
Standard library: class, without modifying its const or volatile qualification.
Input/output with files

We pr
igh Power Pulse Amplifier ampli Implicit conversions with classes
to GS In the world of classes, implicit conversions can be controlled by means of three member functions:

Single-argument constructors: allow implicit conversion from a particular type to initialize an object.
Assignment operator: allow implicit conversion from a particular type on assignments.
Type-cast operator: allow implicit conversion to a particular type.

For example:

1 // implicit conversion of classes:

2 #include <iostream>
3 using namespace std;
4
5 class A {};
6
7 class B {
8 public:
9 // conversion from A (constructor):
10 B (const A& x) {}
11 // conversion from A (assignment):
12 B& operator= (const A& x) {return *this;} Edit
13 // conversion to A (type-cast operator) &
14 operator A() {return A();} Run
15 };
16
17 int main ()
18 {
19 A foo;
20 B bar = foo; // calls constructor
21 bar = foo; // calls assignment
22 foo = bar; // calls type-cast operator
23 return 0;
24 }

The type-cast operator uses a particular syntax: it uses the operator keyword followed by the destination type and an
empty set of parentheses. Notice that the return type is the destination type and thus is not specified before the
operator keyword.

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Keyword explicit
On a function call, C++ allows one implicit conversion to happen for each argument. This may be somewhat
problematic for classes, because it is not always what is intended. For example, if we add the following function to the
last example:

void fn (B arg) {}

This function takes an argument of type B, but it could as well be called with an object of type A as argument:

fn (foo);

This may or may not be what was intended. But, in any case, it can be prevented by marking the affected constructor
with the explicit keyword:

1 // explicit:
2 #include <iostream>
3 using namespace std;
4
5 class A {};
6
7 class B {
8 public:
9 explicit B (const A& x) {}
10 B& operator= (const A& x) {return *this;}
11 operator A() {return A();}
12 };
13
14 void fn (B x) {} Edit & Run
15
16 int main ()
17 {
18 A foo;
19 B bar (foo);
20 bar = foo;
21 foo = bar;
22
23 // fn (foo); // not allowed for explicit ctor.
24 fn (bar);
25
26 return 0;
27 }

Additionally, constructors marked with explicit cannot be called with the assignment-like syntax; In the above
example, bar could not have been constructed with:

B bar = foo;

Type-cast member functions (those described in the previous section) can also be specified as explicit. This prevents
implicit conversions in the same way as explicit-specified constructors do for the destination type.

Type casting
C++ is a strong-typed language. Many conversions, specially those that imply a different interpretation of the value,
require an explicit conversion, known in C++ as type-casting. There exist two main syntaxes for generic type-casting:
functional and c-like:

1 double x = 10.3;
2 int y;
3 y = int (x); // functional notation
4 y = (int) x; // c-like cast notation

The functionality of these generic forms of type-casting is enough for most needs with fundamental data types.
However, these operators can be applied indiscriminately on classes and pointers to classes, which can lead to code that
-while being syntactically correct- can cause runtime errors. For example, the following code compiles without errors:

1 // class type-casting
2 #include <iostream>
3 using namespace std;
4
5 class Dummy {
6 double i,j;
7 };
8
9 class Addition {
10 int x,y;
11 public: Edit
12 Addition (int a, int b) { x=a; y=b; } &
13 int result() { return x+y;} Run
14 };
15
16 int main () {
17 Dummy d;
18 Addition * padd;
19 padd = (Addition*) &d;
20 cout << padd->result();
21 return 0;
22 }

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The program declares a pointer to Addition, but then it assigns to it a reference to an object of another unrelated type
using explicit type-casting:

padd = (Addition*) &d;

Unrestricted explicit type-casting allows to convert any pointer into any other pointer type, independently of the types
they point to. The subsequent call to member result will produce either a run-time error or some other unexpected
results.

In order to control these types of conversions between classes, we have four specific casting operators: dynamic_cast,
reinterpret_cast, static_cast and const_cast. Their format is to follow the new type enclosed between angle-brackets
(<>) and immediately after, the expression to be converted between parentheses.

dynamic_cast <new_type> (expression)

reinterpret_cast <new_type> (expression)
static_cast <new_type> (expression)
const_cast <new_type> (expression)

The traditional type-casting equivalents to these expressions would be:

(new_type) expression
new_type (expression)

but each one with its own special characteristics:

dynamic_cast
dynamic_cast can only be used with pointers and references to classes (or with void*). Its purpose is to ensure that the
result of the type conversion points to a valid complete object of the destination pointer type.

This naturally includes pointer upcast (converting from pointer-to-derived to pointer-to-base), in the same way as
allowed as an implicit conversion.

But dynamic_cast can also downcast (convert from pointer-to-base to pointer-to-derived) polymorphic classes (those
with virtual members) if -and only if- the pointed object is a valid complete object of the target type. For example:

1 // dynamic_cast Null pointer on second type-cast.

2 #include <iostream>
3 #include <exception>
4 using namespace std;
5
6 class Base { virtual void dummy() {} };
7 class Derived: public Base { int a; };
8
9 int main () {
10 try {
11 Base * pba = new Derived;
12 Base * pbb = new Base; Edit
13 Derived * pd; &
14 Run
15 pd = dynamic_cast<Derived*>(pba);
16 if (pd==0) cout << "Null pointer on first type-cast.\n";
17
18 pd = dynamic_cast<Derived*>(pbb);
19 if (pd==0) cout << "Null pointer on second type-cast.\n";
20
21 } catch (exception& e) {cout << "Exception: " << e.what();}
22 return 0;
23 }

Compatibility note: This type of dynamic_cast requires Run-Time Type Information (RTTI) to keep track of dynamic
types. Some compilers support this feature as an option which is disabled by default. This needs to be enabled for
runtime type checking using dynamic_cast to work properly with these types.

The code above tries to perform two dynamic casts from pointer objects of type Base* (pba and pbb) to a pointer object
of type Derived*, but only the first one is successful. Notice their respective initializations:

1 Base * pba = new Derived;

2 Base * pbb = new Base;

Even though both are pointers of type Base*, pba actually points to an object of type Derived, while pbb points to an
object of type Base. Therefore, when their respective type-casts are performed using dynamic_cast, pba is pointing to a
full object of class Derived, whereas pbb is pointing to an object of class Base, which is an incomplete object of class
Derived.

When dynamic_cast cannot cast a pointer because it is not a complete object of the required class -as in the second
conversion in the previous example- it returns a null pointer to indicate the failure. If dynamic_cast is used to convert to
a reference type and the conversion is not possible, an exception of type bad_cast is thrown instead.

dynamic_cast can also perform the other implicit casts allowed on pointers: casting null pointers between pointers types
(even between unrelated classes), and casting any pointer of any type to a void* pointer.

static_cast
static_cast can perform conversions between pointers to related classes, not only upcasts (from pointer-to-derived to
pointer-to-base), but also downcasts (from pointer-to-base to pointer-to-derived). No checks are performed during
runtime to guarantee that the object being converted is in fact a full object of the destination type. Therefore, it is up to
the programmer to ensure that the conversion is safe. On the other side, it does not incur the overhead of the type-
safety checks of dynamic_cast.

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2 class Base {};
3 class Derived: public Base {};
4 Base * a = new Base;
Derived * b = static_cast<Derived*>(a);

This would be valid code, although b would point to an incomplete object of the class and could lead to runtime errors if
dereferenced.

Therefore, static_cast is able to perform with pointers to classes not only the conversions allowed implicitly, but also
their opposite conversions.

static_cast is also able to perform all conversions allowed implicitly (not only those with pointers to classes), and is
also able to perform the opposite of these. It can:

Convert from void* to any pointer type. In this case, it guarantees that if the void* value was obtained by
converting from that same pointer type, the resulting pointer value is the same.
Convert integers, floating-point values and enum types to enum types.

Additionally, static_cast can also perform the following:

Explicitly call a single-argument constructor or a conversion operator.

Convert to rvalue references.
Convert enum class values into integers or floating-point values.
Convert any type to void, evaluating and discarding the value.

reinterpret_cast
reinterpret_cast converts any pointer type to any other pointer type, even of unrelated classes. The operation result is
a simple binary copy of the value from one pointer to the other. All pointer conversions are allowed: neither the content
pointed nor the pointer type itself is checked.

It can also cast pointers to or from integer types. The format in which this integer value represents a pointer is
platform-specific. The only guarantee is that a pointer cast to an integer type large enough to fully contain it (such as
intptr_t), is guaranteed to be able to be cast back to a valid pointer.

The conversions that can be performed by reinterpret_cast but not by static_cast are low-level operations based on
reinterpreting the binary representations of the types, which on most cases results in code which is system-specific,
and thus non-portable. For example:

1 class A { /* ... */ };
2 class B { /* ... */ };
3 A * a = new A;
4 B * b = reinterpret_cast<B*>(a);

This code compiles, although it does not make much sense, since now b points to an object of a totally unrelated and
likely incompatible class. Dereferencing b is unsafe.

const_cast
This type of casting manipulates the constness of the object pointed by a pointer, either to be set or to be removed. For
example, in order to pass a const pointer to a function that expects a non-const argument:

1 // const_cast sample text

2 #include <iostream>
3 using namespace std;
4
5 void print (char * str)
6 {
7 cout << str << '\n'; Edit
8 } &
9 Run
10 int main () {
11 const char * c = "sample text";
12 print ( const_cast<char *> (c) );
13 return 0;
14 }

The example above is guaranteed to work because function print does not write to the pointed object. Note though,
that removing the constness of a pointed object to actually write to it causes undefined behavior.

typeid
typeid allows to check the type of an expression:

typeid (expression)

This operator returns a reference to a constant object of type type_info that is defined in the standard header
<typeinfo>. A value returned by typeid can be compared with another value returned by typeid using operators == and
!= or can serve to obtain a null-terminated character sequence representing the data type or class name by using its
name() member.

1 // typeid a and b are of different types:

2 #include <iostream> a is: int * Edit
3 #include <typeinfo> b is: int &
4 using namespace std; Run
5
6 int main () {
7 int * a,b;
8 a=0; b=0;
9 if (typeid(a) != typeid(b))

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10 {
11 cout << "a and b are of different types:\n";
12 cout << "a is: " << typeid(a).name() << '\n';
13 cout << "b is: " << typeid(b).name() << '\n';
14 }
15 return 0;
16 }

When typeid is applied to classes, typeid uses the RTTI to keep track of the type of dynamic objects. When typeid is
applied to an expression whose type is a polymorphic class, the result is the type of the most derived complete object:

1 // typeid, polymorphic class a is: class Base *

2 #include <iostream> b is: class Base *
3 #include <typeinfo> *a is: class Base
4 #include <exception> *b is: class Derived
5 using namespace std;
6
7 class Base { virtual void f(){} };
8 class Derived : public Base {};
9
10 int main () { Edit
11 try { &
12 Base* a = new Base; Run
13 Base* b = new Derived;
14 cout << "a is: " << typeid(a).name() << '\n';
15 cout << "b is: " << typeid(b).name() << '\n';
16 cout << "*a is: " << typeid(*a).name() << '\n';
17 cout << "*b is: " << typeid(*b).name() << '\n';
18 } catch (exception& e) { cout << "Exception: " << e.what() << '\n'; }
19 return 0;
20 }

Note: The string returned by member name of type_info depends on the specific implementation of your compiler and
library. It is not necessarily a simple string with its typical type name, like in the compiler used to produce this output.

Notice how the type that typeid considers for pointers is the pointer type itself (both a and b are of type class Base *).
However, when typeid is applied to objects (like *a and *b) typeid yields their dynamic type (i.e. the type of their most
derived complete object).

If the type typeid evaluates is a pointer preceded by the dereference operator (*), and this pointer has a null value,
typeid throws a bad_typeid exception.

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