______________________________________________________________________ 4 Standard conversions [conv] ______________________________________________________________________ 1 [Note: Expressions with a given type will be implicitly converted to other types in several contexts: --When used as operands of operators. The operator's requirements for its operands dictate the destination type. See _expr_. --When used in the condition of an if statement or iteration statement (_stmt.select_, _stmt.iter_). The destination type is bool. --When used in the expression of a switch statement. The destination type is integral (_stmt.select_). --When used as the source expression for an initialization (which includes use as an argument in a function call and use as the expression in a return statement). The type of the entity being initialized is (generally) the destination type. See _dcl.init_, _dcl.init.ref_. 2 Standard conversions are implicit conversions defined for built-in types. For user-defined types, user-defined conversions are consid ered as well; see _class.conv_. In general, an implicit conversion sequence (_over.best.ics_) consists of zero or more standard conver sions and zero or one user-defined conversion. 3 There are some contexts where certain conversions are suppressed. For example, the lvalue-to-rvalue conversion is not done on the operand of the unary & operator. Specific exceptions are given in the descrip tions of those operators and contexts. --end note] 4 One or more of the following standard conversions will be applied to an expression if necessary to convert it to a required destination type. 4.1 Lvalue-to-rvalue conversion [conv.lval] 1 An lvalue (_basic.lval_) of a non-function, non-array type T can be converted to an rvalue. If T is an incomplete type, a program that necessitates this conversion is ill-formed. If T is a non-class type, the type of the rvalue is the cv-unqualified version of T. Otherwise (i.e., T is a class type), the type of the rvalue is T. 1) _________________________ 2 The value contained in the object indicated by the lvalue is the rvalue result. When an lvalue-to-rvalue conversion is done within the operand of sizeof (_expr.sizeof_) the value contained in the refer enced object is not accessed, since that operator does not evaluate its operand. 3 [Note: See also _basic.lval_. ] 4.2 Array-to-pointer conversion [conv.array] 1 An lvalue or rvalue of type "array of N T" or "array of unknown bound of T" can be converted to an rvalue of type "pointer to T." The result is a pointer to the first element of the array. 4.3 Function-to-pointer conversion [conv.func] 1 An lvalue of function type T can be converted to an rvalue of type "pointer to T." The result is a pointer to the function.2) 2 [Note: See _over.over_ for additional rules for the case where the function is overloaded. ] 4.4 Qualification conversions [conv.qual] 1 An rvalue of type "pointer to cv1 T" can be converted to an rvalue of type "pointer to cv2 T" if "cv2 T" is more cv-qualified than "cv1 T." 2 An rvalue of type "pointer to member of X of type cv1 T" can be con verted to an rvalue of type "pointer to member of X of type cv2 T" if "cv2 T" is more cv-qualified than "cv1 T." 3 A conversion can add type qualifiers at levels other than the first in multi-level pointers, subject to the following rules:3) Two pointer types T1 and T2 are similar if there exists a type T and integer N>0 such that: T1 is Tcv1,n * ... cv1,1 * cv1,0 and T2 is Tcv2,n * ... cv2,1 * cv2,0 where each cvi,j is const, volatile, const volatile, or nothing. An expression of type T1 can be converted to type T2 if and only if the following conditions are satisfied: _________________________ 1) In C++ class rvalues can have cv-qualified types (because they are objects). This differs from ISO C, in which non-lvalues never have cv-qualified types. 2) This conversion never applies to nonstatic member functions because there is no way to obtain an lvalue for a nonstatic member function. 3) These rules ensure that const-safety is preserved by the conver sion. --the pointer types are similar. --for every j>0, if const is in cv1,j then const is in cv2,j, and similarly for volatile. --the cv1,j and cv2,j are different, then const is in every cv2,k for 0<k<j. 4 When a multi-level pointer is composed of data member pointers, or a mix of object and data member pointers, the rules for adding type qualifiers are the same as those for object pointers. That is, the "member" aspect of the pointers is irrelevant in determining where type qualifiers can be added. 4.5 Integral promotions [conv.prom] 1 An rvalue of type char, signed char, unsigned char, short int, or unsigned short int can be converted to an rvalue of type int if int can represent all the values of the source type; otherwise, the source rvalue can be converted to an rvalue of type unsigned int. 2 An rvalue of type wchar_t (_basic.fundamental_) or an enumeration type (_dcl.enum_) can be converted to an rvalue of the first of the follow ing types that can represent all the values of the source type: int, unsigned int, long, or unsigned long. 3 An rvalue for an integral bit-field (_class.bit_) can be converted to an rvalue of type int if int can represent all the values of the bit- field; otherwise, it can be converted to unsigned int if unsigned int can represent all the values of the bit-field4). 4 An rvalue of type bool can be converted to an rvalue of type int, with false becoming zero and true becoming one. 5 These conversions are called integral promotions. 4.6 Floating point promotion [conv.fpprom] 1 An rvalue of type float can be converted to an rvalue of type double. The value is unchanged. 2 This conversion is called floating point promotion. 4.7 Integral conversions [conv.integral] 1 An rvalue of an integer type can be converted to an rvalue of another integer type. _________________________ 4) If the bit-field is larger yet, it is not eligible for integral promotion. If the bit-field has an enumerated type, it is treated as any other value of that type for promotion purposes. 2 If the destination type is unsigned, the resulting value is the least unsigned integer congruent to the source integer (modulo 2n where n is the number of bits used to represent the unsigned type). [Note: In a two's complement representation, this conversion is conceptual and there is no change in the bit pattern (if there is no truncation). ] 3 If the destination type is signed, the value is unchanged if it can be represented in the destination type (and bitfield width); otherwise, the value is implementation-defined. 4 If the destination type is bool, see _conv.bool_. If the source type is bool, the value false is converted to zero and the value true is converted to one. 5 The conversions allowed as integral promotions are excluded from the set of integral conversions. 4.8 Floating point conversions [conv.double] 1 An rvalue of floating point type can be converted to an rvalue of another floating point type. If the source value can be exactly rep resented in the destination type, the result of the conversion is that exact representation. If the source value is between two adjacent destination values, the result of the conversion is an unspecified choice of either of those values. Otherwise, the behavior is unde fined. 2 The conversions allowed as floating point promotions are excluded from the set of floating point conversions. 4.9 Floating-integral conversions [conv.fpint] 1 An rvalue of a floating point type can be converted to an rvalue of an integer type. The conversion truncates; that is, the fractional part is discarded. The behavior is undefined if the truncated value cannot be represented in the destination type. [Note: If the destination type is bool, see _conv.bool_. ] 2 An rvalue of an integer type can be converted to an rvalue of a float ing point type. The result is exact if possible. Otherwise, it is an unspecified choice of either the next lower or higher representable value. Loss of precision occurs if the integral value cannot be rep resented exactly as a value of the floating type. If the source type is bool, the value false is converted to zero and the value true is converted to one. 4.10 Pointer conversions [conv.ptr] 1 An integral constant expression (_expr.const_) rvalue that evaluates to zero (called a null pointer constant) can be converted to a pointer type. The result is a value (called the null pointer value of that type) distinguishable from every pointer to an object or function. Two null pointer values of a given type compare equal. 2 An rvalue of type "pointer to cv T," where T is an object type, can be converted to an rvalue of type "pointer to cv void." The result of converting a "pointer to cv T" to a "pointer to cv void" points to the start of the storage location where the object of type T resides, as if the object is a complete object of type T (that is, not a base class subobject). 3 An rvalue of type "pointer to cv D," where D is a class type, can be converted to an rvalue of type "pointer to cv B," where B is a base class (_class.derived_) of D. If B is an inaccessible (_class.access_) or ambiguous (_class.member.lookup_) base class of D, a program that necessitates this conversion is ill-formed. The result of the conversion is a pointer to the base class sub-object of the derived class object. The null pointer value is converted to the null pointer value of the destination type. 4.11 Pointer to member conversions [conv.mem] 1 A null pointer constant (_conv.ptr_) can be converted to a pointer to member type. The result is a value (called the null member pointer value of that type) distinguishable from a pointer to any member. Two null member pointer values of a given type compare equal. 2 An rvalue of type "pointer to member of B of type cv T," where B is a class type, can be converted to an rvalue of type "pointer to member of D of type cv T," where D is a derived class (_class.derived_) of B. If B is an inaccessible (_class.access_) or ambiguous (_class.member.lookup_) base class of D, a program that necessitates this conversion is ill-formed. The result of the conversion refers to the same member as the pointer to member before the conversion took place, but it refers to the base class member as if it were a member of the derived class. The result refers to the member in D's instance of B. Since the result has type "pointer to member of D of type cv T," it can be dereferenced with a D object. The result is the same as if the pointer to member of B were dereferenced with the B sub- object of D. The null member pointer value is converted to the null member pointer value of the destination type.5) 4.12 Base class conversion [conv.class] 1 An rvalue of type "cv D," where D is a class type, can be converted to an rvalue of type "cv B," where B is a base class (_class.derived_) of D. If B is an inaccessible (_class.access_) or ambiguous _________________________ 5) The rule for conversion of pointers to members (from pointer to member of base to pointer to member of derived) appears inverted com pared to the rule for pointers to objects (from pointer to derived to pointer to base) (_conv.ptr_, _class.derived_). This inversion is necessary to ensure type safety. Note that a pointer to member is not a pointer to object or a pointer to function and the rules for conver sions of such pointers do not apply to pointers to members. In par ticular, a pointer to member cannot be converted to a void*. (_class.member.lookup_) base class of D, or if the conversion is implemented by calling a constructor (_class.conv.ctor_) and the con structor is not callable, a program that necessitates this conversion is ill-formed. The result of the conversion is the value of the base class sub-object of the derived class object. 4.13 Boolean conversions [conv.bool] 1 An rvalue of arithmetic, enumeration, pointer, or pointer to member type can be converted to an rvalue of type bool. A zero value, null pointer value, or null member pointer value is converted to false; any other value is converted to true.