Re: cannot compile example 1-1 of "More Exceptional C++"

From:
Ulrich Eckhardt <eckhardt@satorlaser.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:55:04 CST
Message-ID:
<mgsqp4-kee.ln1@satorlaser.homedns.org>
wei.niu@gmail.com wrote:

But when compiling "ofstream( "abv.txt", ios::binary | ios::out ) <<
123 " with VC7.1 no warn was reported.Why?

Below is my test code:

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

void test( ostream &out )
{
out << 356 ;
}

int main( int argc, char **argv )
{
test( ofstream("aa", ios::binary | ios::out ) ) ;
ofstream( "abv.txt", ios::binary | ios::out ) << 123 ;
return 0 ;
}

When compiling with VC7.1,it reports the error of wrongly calling
function test.


The difference could be shown even simpler:

   ostream(0) << "text"; // works
   ostream(0) << string("text"); // fails to compile

The difference is that operator<< for char* is a member while the one for
string is a non-member function. As such, it behaves like any other
function, even non-overloaded operators as in your example. Now, the
difference is that you can call non-const memberfunctions on a temporary
but not otherwise bind them to a non-const reference.

The typical workaround is to use a member operator<< that does almost
nothing and then take the result (a non-const reference) to bind it to a
non-const reference:

   ostream(0) << "" << string("text"); // works

ofstream out ;
ifstream in ;

(argc > 2
? out.open( argv[2], ios::binary | ios::out ),
static_cast<ostream&>( out )
: cout )

[...]

Does "static_cast<ostream&>( out )" generate a temporary reference
object?If true,why no warn is reported?


'out' is a reference to an ofstream, that cast only converts it to a
reference to an ostream - no temporaries are involved.

Uli

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