Usual arithmetic conversions - cppreference.com (original) (raw)

Many binary operators that expect operands of arithmetic or enumeration type cause conversions and yield result types in a similar way. The purpose is to yield a common type, which is also the type of the result. This pattern is called the usual arithmetic conversions.

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[edit] Definition

Usual arithmetic conversions are defined as follows:

[edit] Stage 1

Applies lvalue-to-rvalue conversion to both operands, the resulting prvalues are used in place of the original operands for the remaining process.

[edit] Stage 2

If either operand is of scoped enumeration type, no conversions are performed; if the other operand does not have the same type, the expression is ill-formed. Otherwise, proceed to the next stage. (since C++11)

[edit] Stage 3

If either operand is of enumeration type, and the other operand is of a different enumeration type or a floating-point type, the expression is ill-formed. Otherwise, proceed to the next stage. (since C++26)

[edit] Stage 4

Otherwise, if the floating-point conversion ranks of the types of the operands are equal, then the operand with the lesser floating-point conversion subrank is converted to the type of the other operand. Otherwise, the expression is ill-formed. (since C++23)

[edit] Stage 5

Both operands are converted to a common type C. Given the types T1 and T2 as the promoted type (under the rules of integral promotions) of the operands, the following rules are applied to determine C:

If one operand is of enumeration type and the other operand is of a different enumeration type or a floating-point type, this behavior is deprecated. (since C++20)(until C++26)

[edit] Integer conversion rank

Every integer type has an integer conversion rank defined as follows:

The rank of any standard integer type is greater than the rank of any extended integer type with the same width. (since C++11)
The rank of char8_t equals the rank of unsigned char. (since C++20)
The rank of char16_t equals the rank of std::uint_least16_t. The rank of char32_t equals the rank of std::uint_least32_t. (since C++11)
The rank of any extended signed integer type relative to another extended signed integer type with the same width is implementation-defined, but still subject to the other rules for determining the integer conversion rank. (since C++11)

The integer conversion rank is also used in the definition of integral promotion.

[edit] Floating-point conversion rank and subrank

[edit] Floating-point conversion rank

Every floating-point type has a floating-point conversion rank defined as follows:

The rank of a floating-point type T is greater than the rank of any floating-point type whose set of values is a proper subset of the set of values of T. Two extended floating-point types with the same set of values have equal ranks. An extended floating-point type with the same set of values as exactly one cv-unqualified standard floating-point type has a rank equal to the rank of that standard floating-point type. An extended floating-point type with the same set of values as more than one cv-unqualified standard floating-point type has a rank equal to the rank of double. (since C++23)
Floating-point conversion subrank Floating-point types that have equal floating-point conversion ranks are ordered by floating-point conversion subrank. The subrank forms a total order among types with equal ranks.The types std::float16_t, std::float32_t, std::float64_t, and std::float128_t (fixed width floating-point types) have a greater conversion subrank than any standard floating-point type with equal conversion rank. Otherwise, the conversion subrank order is implementation-defined. (since C++23)

[edit] Usage

The floating-point conversion rank and subrank are also used to

determine the actual type extracted by std::num_get::get() for the extraction of an extended floating-point type using std::basic_istream::operator>>, determinte the actual type inserted by std::num_put::put() for the insertion of an extended floating-point type using std::basic_ostream::operator<<, (since C++23)

[edit] Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR Applied to Behavior as published Correct behavior
CWG 1642 C++98 usual arithmetic conversions might involve lvalues applies lvalue-to-rvalue conversions first
CWG 2528 C++20 the three-way comparison between unsigned charand unsigned int is ill-formed becauseof the intermediate integral promotion[1] determines the common type basedon the promoted types, withoutactually promoting the operands[2]
CWG 2892 C++98 when both operands are of the samefloating-point type, the meaning of “nofurther conversion is needed” was unclear changed to “no furtherconversion will be performed”
  1. Before the resolution, unsigned char is promoted to int at the beginning of stage 5, then it is converted to unsigned int. However, the latter conversion is narrowing, which makes the three-way comparison ill-formed.
  2. After the resolution, the common type is still unsigned int. The difference is that unsigned char is directly converted to unsigned int without the intermediate integral promotion. The conversion is not narrowing and hence the three-way comparison is well-formed.