Re: How to overcome overloading ambiguity

From:
"Fred Zwarts" <F.Zwarts@KVI.nl>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:22:50 +0200
Message-ID:
<h182qq$5f3$1@news.albasani.net>
"Michael Doubez" <michael.doubez@free.fr> wrote in message =
news:93a4aefc-d7bc-4952-a4ab-d338c18c9717@t16g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...=

On 16 juin, 13:56, "Fred Zwarts" <F.Zwa...@KVI.nl> wrote:

"Michael Doubez" <michael.dou...@free.fr> wrote in =

messagenews:8429d814-ba46-441d-900c-3750a9412310@x3g2000yqa.googlegroups.=
com...

On 16 juin, 11:36, "Fred Zwarts" <F.Zwa...@KVI.nl> wrote:

In my software I need a vector of boolean values.
My first attempt was to use vector<bool>, but vector has a =

specialization for the bool type

with unwanted implications. For example, I need to pass elements of =

the vector as

reference to bool (bool&) to certain functions which may modify the =

value of such elements.

This is not possible with vector<bool>.

My next idea was to create a class Boolean_t which can be used =

instead of the bool type,

with transparent functionality. So I attempted the following:

class Boolean_t {
private:
bool Flag;

public:

// Normal constructor:

Boolean_t (const bool InitialValue = false) : Flag (InitialValue) =

{}

// Define conversion to bool and reference to bool.

operator bool () const {
return Flag;
}


Which can be replaced by:
operator const bool& () const {return Flag; }

operator bool & () {
return Flag;
}

};

My problem is with two operator definitions. I need both.
The first one is needed to convert a const object to a bool value,
which cannot be done with the second one.
The second one is needed to pass objects of type Boolean_t to =

functions that need a reference to bool,

which cannot be done with the first one.

However, if an object of type Boolean_t is used in a boolean =

expression, the compiler complains

about an ambiguity in the reference to a conversion function.


Can you post an example ?

Indeed, I understand that both
of these conversion functions could be used in this case.
Is there a solution to overcome this ambiguity and to keep the =

functionality?

I followed your suggestion, because it even allows references to const =

objects.

Doesn't make a lot of difference here. const reference bind to lvalue.

It does not make a difference for ambiguity according to the compiler.
However, I now see that another compiler does not complain.

When I then try something like:

Boolean_t Value;

....

if (Value) {
...

}

Then one compiler complains about the expression in the if statement =

that there is an ambiguity

in choosing between the two operators.
Another compiler, however, does not complain.
Which one is right?


Which compilers ?
This seems to compile fine with MSVC9 and g++ and I don't see the
problem.

Well, in fact the program that complains is not a compiler, but a lint =
program.
FlexeLint 9.0b to be exact. (See www.gimpel.com.)
If it can be explained that this is a bug in FlexeLint, I could file a =
bug report.

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