Re: Problem with <algorithm> transform

From:
"Alf P. Steinbach" <alfps@start.no>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:15:05 +0100
Message-ID:
<13o2kno81hfis20@corp.supernews.com>
* Erik WikstrFm:

On 2008-01-06 21:45, Andrew Koenig wrote:

    transform(s.begin(), s.end(),s.begin(), toupper);
Something seems seriously wrong but I can't figure it.

Alas, toupper is a macro so you can't pass it as an argument.


Are you sure? In C99 it is a function specified as int toupper(int c)
(section 7.4.2.2, "The toupper function") and in C++98 table 45 it is
also listed as a function.


The reference you give is correct, and means that Andrew Koenig made a
mistake.

To the OP: the code you posted compiled and ran fine with MSVC++ so I am
not sure why it did not work for you.


Ironically, the error seems to be due to Koenig lookup... :-)

However, adding an include of <locale> does not reproduce the error with
MSVC 7.1.

As Newton puportedly said, I frame no hypothesis.

However there is also a toupper()
function in C++ declared in the <locale> header which might work (i.e.
replace <cctype> with <locale> and try again).


No, that one is a bit different: it suffers from the usual standard
library (except STL parts) unusability and complexity, taking a locale
argument as second argument.

A cure for the immediate problem is to write

   ::toupper

but this may be a compiler-specific cure (I'm not sure).

However, it doesn't matter much, because using the C library's toupper
function directly is a big no-no: it should only be used via a wrapper like

   char toUpper( char c )
   {
      return static_cast<char>(
          ::toupper( static_cast<unsigned char>( c ) )
          );
   }

Otherwise, with negative char value promotion to integer (the formal
argument) will yield a value that is not representable as unsigned char,
which the C library toupper function requires.

So to sum up, the Josuttis book example may be correct for the given
data (only ASCII characters), but not for an arbitrary input string,
and, g++ apparently does something funny.

Cheers, & hth.,

- Alf

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