CWG Issue 1512 (original) (raw)

This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 Core Issues List revision 117a. See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official list.

2025-04-13

1512. Pointer comparison vs qualification conversions

Section: 7.6.9 [expr.rel]Status: CD3Submitter: Steve ClamageDate: 2012-06-22

[Moved to DR status at the April, 2013 meeting as paper N3624.]

According to 7.6.9 [expr.rel] paragraph 2, describing pointer comparisons,

Pointer conversions (7.3.12 [conv.ptr]) and qualification conversions (7.3.6 [conv.qual]) are performed on pointer operands (or on a pointer operand and a null pointer constant, or on two null pointer constants, at least one of which is non-integral) to bring them to their composite pointer type.

This would appear to make the following example ill-formed,

bool foo(int** x, const int** y) { return x < y; // valid ? }

because int** cannot be converted to const int**, according to the rules of 7.3.6 [conv.qual] paragraph 4. This seems too strict for pointer comparison, and current implementations accept the example.

Proposed resolution (November, 2012):

The proposed wording is found in document N3478.

(This resolution also resolves issue 583.)