If someone were to ask me to name the single most exciting feature of C++,
I'd reply saying that it was the ability to perform casts from one type to
another. Of course this is purely a whimsical and highly irrational love I have
for casts and is not a reflection of any great technical pondering I might have
committed on casts and their usefulness. I mentally squeal with delight every
time I see code that looks something similar to ((CNishApp*)AfxGetApp())->CustomFunc()
or (LPSTR)(LPCTSTR)m_str. This was all quite well when I was using VC++ 6 but
when I started moving some of my old applications to VC++.NET, it was a little
disconcerting to see all those compiler warnings about how my C style casts were
now deprecated.
That's when I took a look at the new C++ casting operators that were available and quickly discovered that, they were a much safer and smarter way for doing casts. This article will run through the various casting operators that are available and will suggest when and where you might want to use each of these casting operators. The entire article has been written from a managed extensions context and therefore I only discuss managed classes in this article. This has some interesting corollaries which I mention later in the article.
The single biggest problem with C-style casts is that they are absolutely and totally unsafe. No compile time or run time checks are made and you are left with full freedom to dig your own grave, as deep as you want to. There is nothing to stop you from casting a base class pointer that points to a base class object to a derived class pointer, which means that when you make your derived class method calls, catastrophe results most assuredly.
Another problem is that you never know what kind of cast you are trying to
achieve. All casts you can do look the same as far as syntax goes. Obviously
this can be a pain in the neck when you are debugging. In addition some people
use the functional style casts where they do int(x) instead of
(int)x and this results in further obfuscation of the code, because
C/C++ code is just about always sprinkled with functions and their accompanying
brackets.
There are five casting operators provided which serve to replace the old
C-style casts. Each has a specific purpose and intended usage which I explain
later down the article. Before that I'd like to touch on the subject of
polymorphic classes. Any class that has virtual functions is a polymorphic
class. Now this marks a major distinction among classes in the old unmanaged
world. But in the new managed world of C++ coding, every class is polymorphic,
because all managed classes derive implicitly from System::Object
which has virtual methods of its own. Thus this renders every __gc
class as a polymorphic class. This allows us to exclusively use the safer
dynamic_cast instead of static_cast just about
everywhere, which was not possible in unmanaged C++.
static_castdynamic_castconst_castreinterpret_cast__try_cast (managed extensions only)The static_cast operator relies only on compile time
information. Run time checks are not done to ensure a safe cast. You can do both
downcasts and upcasts using static_cast, but there are
dangers involved which I demonstrate later down the article. The syntax
for using the static_cast operator is shown below :-
T t = static_cast<T>(expression);
An example usage would be something like :-
CMainFrame* pMF = static_cast<CMainFrame*>(AfxGetMainWnd());
The dynamic_cast operator relies both on compile time
and run time information. When you attempt to do a cast using the
dynamic_cast operator, a run time check is made to see if this is a safe
cast, and if the cast is unsafe then this the cast returns NULL.
Thus by checking for NULL, we can determine whether the
cast attempt was successful or not. The syntax is :-
T t = dynamic_cast<T>(expression);
A sample usage of dynamic_cast would be like :-
void Hello(Base* p1)
{
//...
Child *c1 = dynamic_cast<Child*>(p1);
if(c1)
{
// we can safely use c1
}
//...
}
The const_cast operator is used to remove the
const, volatile, and
__unaligned attributes) from a class.
__unaligned is a Microsoft extension to C++ and I am not quite sure of
what it's purpose is. You can use const_cast only to cast between types that
differ only in their const-ness or volatility. The syntax for use is similar to
the other casts :-
T t = const_cast<T>(expression);
A sample use would be something similar to :-
void Abc(const Base* pB)
{
//...
Xyz(const_cast<Base*>(pB));
}
void Xyz(Base* pB)
{
//...
}
To be really honest I have no clue why they have this one because as far as I
see it, its just as bad as the old C style casts except that it advertises it's
lack of safety quite explicitly. You can use the
reinterpret_cast operator to convert from one type to any other type.
It's syntax is :-
T t = reinterpret_cast<T>(expression);
Basically the only safe place to use it would be where we cast from Type-1 to
Type-2 and later we cast back Type-2 to Type-1. Now we have the exact object
back as when we started this reinterpret_cast business.
/* A and B are unrelated types */
A *a = reinterpret_cast<A*>(new B());
B *b = reinterpret_cast<B*>(a); //safe to use b
__try_cast is a managed extension keyword not
available in unmanaged C++. It's essentially similar to
dynamic_cast except that it throws an exception on failure whereas
dynamic_cast returns NULL. The
syntax is :-
T t = __try_cast<T>(expression);
The exception that gets thrown is
System::InvalidCastException and you better use a try-catch
block if you are using __try_cast unless you want to
see your program break in between, though that might actually be a good thing
when you are still developing it. A sample use is shown below :-
try
{
p2 = __try_cast<Base*>(p1);
//use p2 safely now
//...
}
catch(System::InvalidCastException*)
{
Console::WriteLine("blast!");
}
Well, we've seen 5 different casting operators and they are supposed to be replacements for the old C-style casts. It might be a little baffling to choose the correct cast operator when you are coding. To be really honest, till recently I had no clue when to use what! Anyway I have created certain imaginary casting scenarios and used each of the cast operators to try and do the casts [where permitted by the compiler] and I have made an attempt to demonstrate when and why some cast operators are not suitable and when they are suitable. Of course the recommendations are strictly my own and I do not claim that they might be the most suitable options, but then I intend to keep updating the article with valuable input from C++ gurus who happen to come across this article.
These are the test classes and enums that I have used in my experiments.
/*
Our test base class
*/
__gc class Base
{
public:
int dummy;
};
/*
Our test derived class
*/
__gc class Child : public Base
{
public:
char anotherdummy;
};
/*
An independent test class
*/
__gc class Base2
{
};
enum CastType
{
tdynamic_cast,
tstatic_cast,
tconst_cast,
treinterpret_cast,
ttry_cast
};
Downcasting is when you convert from a base class pointer to a derived class
pointer. I have written a function called
BaseToChild which does various kinds of downcasting based on the
CastType enumeration parameter passed to it. Obviously I cannot use
const_cast here because we are casting across unlike types.
Child* BaseToChild(Base* p,CastType casttype)
{
Child* retptr = NULL;
switch(casttype)
{
case tdynamic_cast:
retptr = dynamic_cast<Child*>(p);
break;
case tstatic_cast:
retptr = static_cast<Child*>(p);
break;
case tconst_cast:
/* This won't compile */
//retptr = const_cast<Child*>(p);
break;
case treinterpret_cast:
retptr = reinterpret_cast<Child*>(p);
break;
case ttry_cast:
try
{
retptr = __try_cast<Child*>(p);
}
catch(System::InvalidCastException*)
{
//...
}
break;
}
return retptr;
}
Base *pBase1 = new Base();
Child *pChild1 = NULL;
I have
pBase1 which holds a
Base object and I am now going to attempt to downcast it to a
Child object. Obviously this is unsafe and something which I really
shouldn't be doing. I called
BaseToChild four times, once for each type of cast (const_cast
not usable here).
//dynamic_cast
pChild1 = BaseToChild(pBase1,tdynamic_cast);
if(!pChild1)
{
Console::WriteLine("dynamic_cast - downcast failure");
}
else
{
Console::WriteLine("dynamic_cast - downcast success");
}
I only show the sample code for
dynamic_cast, but the code for the other three casts are very much
similar. I summarize my results in the table below.
| Cast | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|
dynamic_cast |
Failure | Fails and returns
NULL |
static_cast |
Success | Unsafe cast made |
reinterpret_cast |
Success | Unsafe cast made |
__try_cast |
Failure | Fails and throws an exception |
Base *pBase1 = new Child();
Child *pChild1 = NULL;
Alright now we have the Base object holding a Child object. Now it's
perfectly safe to downcast to the derived class. Again I called
BaseToChild four times, once for each type of cast except
const_cast. The table below shows the results I got.
| Cast | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|
dynamic_cast |
Success | Safe cast |
static_cast |
Success | Safe cast |
reinterpret_cast |
Success | Safe cast |
__try_cast |
Success | Safe cast |
If you are absolutely sure that the cast is going to be safe, you can use any
of the four cast operators above, but I'd suggest that you use
static_cast because that'd be the most efficient way of casting. If you
are even a microscopic percentage unsure as to the safety of your cast, you must
simply *avoid*
static_cast and
reinterpret_cast both of which are quite dangerous here. You may use
either
dynamic_cast or
__try_cast depending on whether you like to check for
NULL or you like to have an exception raised and handled.
Upcasting is when you cast from a derived class to one of the parent classes
in the inheritance chain. Usually upcasting is pretty much safe except in
certain rare situations that are actually a result of bad coding rather than
anything else. I demonstrate both scenarios below. Just like I had a function
for downcasting, I also have one for upcasting called
ChildToBase. Just as previously, I cannot use
const_cast here because we are casting across unlike types.
Base* ChildToBase(Child* p,CastType casttype)
{
Base* retptr = NULL;
switch(casttype)
{
case tdynamic_cast:
retptr = dynamic_cast<Base*>(p);
break;
case tstatic_cast:
retptr = static_cast<Base*>(p);
break;
case tconst_cast:
/* This won't compile */
//retptr = const_cast<Base*>(p);
break;
case treinterpret_cast:
retptr = reinterpret_cast<Base*>(p);
break;
case ttry_cast:
try
{
retptr = __try_cast<Base*>(p);
}
catch(System::InvalidCastException*)
{
//...
}
break;
}
return retptr;
}
Base *pBase2 = NULL;
Child *pChild2 = new Child();
I am casting from
Child* to
Base* which is perfectly okay and safe. I show below the results I got
for each cast operator.
| Cast | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|
dynamic_cast |
Success | Safe cast |
static_cast |
Success | Safe cast |
reinterpret_cast |
Success | Safe cast |
__try_cast |
Success | Safe cast |
Base *pBase2 = NULL;
/* Intentionally create a bad pointer */
Child *pChild2 = reinterpret_cast<Child*>(new Base2());
Here I have intentionally created a
Base2 object and cast it to a
Child object using
reinterpret_cast. This is a totally unsafe cast, but I have done this to
demonstrate what happens when you do an unsafe upcast. I show my results in the
table below :-
| Cast | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|
dynamic_cast |
Failure | Fails and returns
NULL |
static_cast |
Success | Unsafe cast made |
reinterpret_cast |
Success | Unsafe cast made |
__try_cast |
Failure | Fails and throws an exception |
In most situations upcasting should be quite safe except when you have a bad
derived class pointer (bad in the sense that it points to the wrong object).
Therefore my recommendation for upcasting is to use
static_cast which should be the most efficient. If your upcasts are
unsafe it's probably time for you to sit down and figure out what's going wrong
in your code rather than using
dynamic_cast or
__try_cast. In addition keep in kind that upcasting would probably be
implicitly done in most situations.
Consider the code below :-
const Base *pB = new Base();
/* won't compile */
pB->dummy = 100;
You'll get a compiler error, because you are trying to modify a
const object. Using
const_cast, you can quickly overcome this problematic situation.
const_cast<Base*>(pB)->dummy = 100;
/* should show 100 on the console */
Console::WriteLine(pB->dummy);
Another useful application of
const_cast comes in
const member functions.
When you mark a class member as
const, you are telling the compiler that this
function is a read-only function that will not modify the object. This means
your
this pointer is now a
const Class * const instead of just
Class * const. Now suppose that for some reason you want to modify some
member from this member function. You can use
const_cast as shown below. Of course you might also want to rethink your
design if you are having to un-const all your
const member functions.
void A::abc() const
{
const_cast<A* const>(this)->m_total++;
}
As I already mentioned earlier, this is the most unsafe of all the C++ cast
operators and it's probably best to avoid using it. But then when porting old
code, you might want to convert the old style casts to
reinterpret_cast. In my example,
Base2 and
Base are two managed classes that do not share an inheritance chain
except for deriving automatically from
System::Object. Assume that for whatever reason, we need to cast a
Base2 object into a
Base object and later cast it back to a
Base2 object.
Base *pB1 = NULL;
Base2 *pB2 = new Base2();
Let's first try to use
dynamic_cast :-
/* Compiles, but fails */
pB1 = dynamic_cast<Base*>(pB2);
if(!pB1)
Console::WriteLine("dynamic_cast failed");
It compiles fine, but fails during run-time. Now let's try using
static_cast
:-
/* Won't compile */
//pB1 = static_cast<Base*>(pB2);
Okay, great! That won't even compile because the compile-time check fails.
How about
__try_cast :-
/* Compiles, but throws exception */
try
{
pB1 = __try_cast<Base*>(pB2);
}
catch(System::InvalidCastException*)
{
Console::WriteLine("__try_cast has thrown an exception");
}
Just like dynamic_cast this compiles fine too, but
throws an exception at run-time. That leaves us just
reinterpret_cast now.
/* This is a sort of blind man's cast */
pB1 = reinterpret_cast<Base*>(pB2);
Oh boy! That compiled and also ran fine. No errors. pB1
which was declared as a Base object now holds a
Base2 object. To test this, we can try to re-cast it
back using dynamic_cast.
/* Now we cast it back */
Base2* pDest = dynamic_cast<Base2*>(pB1);
if(pDest)
{
Console::WriteLine("Original pointer has been obtained");
}
Well, as you might have understood by now, it's safest to avoid using
reinterpret_cast, but it does have it's uses and
without it, we'd still have had to use C-style casts when porting old code.
Well, the magic of casts haven't died yet, and casts live through the C++ cast operators and continue to enthrall C/C++ lovers all over the world. I am not sure that everything I have suggested in the article is nice and proper. But I trust that I'll get the required critical feedback to correct any erroneous statements and recommendations I might have made.
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