Re: Why this code must add sizeof()?

From:
Fei Liu <feiliu@aepnetworks.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Mon, 09 Apr 2007 11:17:01 -0400
Message-ID:
<evdldc$408$1@aioe.org>
nevergone wrote:

On 4??9??, ????8??34??, "aiooua" <aio...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Apr 9, 2:08 pm, "nevergone" <wyx2006s...@gmail.com> wrote:

so my question is why " (void)sizeof( CompileTimeChecker< (expr) != 0>( (ERROR_##msg() ) )); \" must add sizeof?

in general, checks for incomplete types are better done within sizeof
because it's runtime overheads are minimum. try to generate the
assembly code (using, g++ -S) with and without the "sizeof" and you'll
see that the sizeof version is better.

however, i have a related, but different problem. i tried the code as
printed in the book[#1] and couldn't get it to work.

---
/* begin code */
template<bool> struct CompileTimeChecker{ CompileTimeChecker(...); };
template<> struct CompileTimeChecker<false> { };
#define STATIC_CHECK(expr, msg) { class ERROR_##msg {};
(void)sizeof(CompileTimeChecker<(expr) != 0>((ERROR_##msg()))); }
int main(){ STATIC_CHECK(1>2,mustFail);}
/* end code */
---

here's what g++ gives me:

---> g++ -Wall -pedantic test.cpp

test.cpp: In function `int main()':
test.cpp:4: warning: ISO C++ forbids applying `sizeof' to a function
type
---

apart from that warning, the compilation goes through.
shouldn't it fail? what am i missing?

thanks,
--
#1 - pg. 21, Modern C++ Design, Andrei Alexandrescu.

I don't know.
but i think it would be better to add () in 1>2


It's not necessary to add () in 1>2 except for readability reasons
(arguably since some people consider more () to be less readable). In
the macro, 'expr' is already guarded by ().

I found the code example confusing, it almost seemed like it should do a
sizeof(CompileTimeChecker<(expr)>) != 0 test instead. It may be trying
to facility the empty structure optimization, an empty struct/class's
sizeof returns 0 as the specialization template<> struct
CompileTimeChecker<false> { }; would do.

Fei

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