Re: detecting class member offset from member itself

From:
"Jiang" <goo.mail01@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
28 Nov 2006 11:08:18 -0500
Message-ID:
<1164725893.367105.269680@l39g2000cwd.googlegroups.com>
Frederick Gotham wrote:

Jiang:

#define offsetof_non_POD(type,member)\
(char*)&GetObj< type >(). member - (char*)&GetObj< type >()


Another undefined behavior, isn't it?

According to 5.7, we have pointer addition/subtraction operation
defined, and unfortunately, your above MACRO will invoke
undefined behavior (5.7/p6).


No it won't invoke undefined behaviour. Firstly, any pointer address can

be

stored in a char*.


Why?

Are you talking about PODs?

Secondly, if two pointers point to parts of the same
object, then they can be subracted to give a distance.


Please read 5.7 again. The subtraction operation works for object
itself and you can not apply it to the object's members.

The Standard necessitates that the code work perfectly.


I do not see how it works perfectly. There are many ways to
break it in my mind.

For example:

int i = 1;
const int foo::a;
struct foo
{
    // static member OK?
    static const int a = 2;

    // reference member OK?
    const int &b;
    foo(): b(i){}

    // overloaded operator OK?
    int operator&(){
        return 0xDEADBEFF;
    }

    // inaccessible default constructor OK?
private:
    foo(){}

};

If you apply your Macro to this class/members, you will find
strange results in my mind.

To repeat myself, offsetof (or Macros like it) is seldom useful
in our c++ context. Avoid them if possible please.

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