Can anyone post (or point me to) a good explanation on the various C++ cast
operators (static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>, reinterpret_cast<>,
and the C-style cast) and the difference between them?

Please CC me by email.

Thanxalot!


Have fun,
Alex.



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Alex Oren wrote:
>
> Can anyone post (or point me to) a good explanation on the various C++ cast
> operators (static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>, reinterpret_cast<>,
> and the C-style cast) and the difference between them?
> Thanxalot!
>
> Have fun,
> Alex.
>Scott Meyer's new book "More Effective C++" has a nice chapter discussing
all of these.  If I remember correctly, const_cast is used to cast away
const-ness, dynamic_cast is used for safe downcasts (i.e. base pointer =>
derived class pointer), reinterpret cast is for specialized stuff like
casting to/from function pointers with the "wrong" signature (like MS's
old FARPROC typedef), and static_cast.. hmm I think that was for routine
stuff like reducing the length of an integer type (e.g. long to int).

Meyer's book is also a good source for other recent stuff like the
explicit and mutable keywords, typeid/RTTI, auto_ptr, etc.  His publisher
has a Web site with errata and recent changes to auto_ptr.


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Alex Oren (alexo@log-on.com) wrote:

: Can anyone post (or point me to) a good explanation on the various C++ cast
: operators (static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>, reinterpret_cast<>,
: and the C-style cast) and the difference between them?

: Please CC me by email.

: Thanxalot!


An excellent article on the cast operators is available at

http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~wiseb/xrds/ovp3-1.html

Thanks to G. Bowden Wise for writing and making this available.

Brad

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| Brad Stuart      brad@cfar.umd.edu
| Center for Automation Research
| University of Maryland, College Park
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