Re: dynamic cast questions

From:
James Kanze <james.kanze@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sat, 27 Sep 2008 11:52:49 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<45b4da65-e5e9-43cc-baa9-092732610b57@k13g2000hse.googlegroups.com>
On Sep 27, 5:42 pm, puzzlecracker <ironsel2...@gmail.com> wrote:

What about dynamic_cast when dynamic reference is not unique
(e.g. A-> B, B->C, B->D, is dynamic_cast<B *> correct for
pointer to D?


Obviously. So is static_cast, and any time static_cast is OK,
so is dynamic_cast.

But I don't understand the comments above. B is unique.
Perhaps you meant something like:

    B B
    | |
    L R
     \ /
      D

    D* pD = new D ;
    B* pB = dynamic_cast< B* >( pD ) ;

Most people would probably try static_cast in such cases, but
the results are the same, static_cast or dynamic_cast: the
conversion is ambiguous, and thus rejected by the compiler.

Perhaps a more complete example of what you're asking would be
in order. Or just read the exact rules (=A75.2.7/8 in the
standard).

Why would you use dynamic cast<void *>?


Because you want the void* to point to the complete object, and
not just to the sub-object pointed to by the pointer you have.

What is typeid


An operator.

& what does it return?


Since it's not a function, it doesn't return anything. The
result of the operator is an lvalue of type std::type_info
const, or of some implementation defined type derived from
std::type_info (also const).

How would you use it?


Depends on what you want to use it for.

What is wrong here

void *pVoid = new C(); C *pC = dynamic_cast<C *> (pVoid);


It's not legal C++. You can't dynamic_cast a void*.

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