Incorrect char extraction code

Rosen, Hyman Hyman.Rosen@kbcfp.com
Mon Jan 29 07:13:00 GMT 2001


std_istream.h has the following pair of templates:

  template<class _Traits>
    basic_istream<char, _Traits>&
    operator>>(basic_istream<char, _Traits>& __in, unsigned char& __c)
    { return (__in >> static_cast<char>(__c)); }

  template<class _Traits>
    basic_istream<char, _Traits>&
    operator>>(basic_istream<char, _Traits>& __in, signed char& __c)
    { return (__in >> static_cast<char>(__c)); }

These are clearly wrong; the result of a static_cast<char> is not an
lvalue, so code that tries an extraction into a signed or unsigned char
shouldn't even compile. Those casts need to be reinterpret_cast<char &>,
and then you need to verify that you won't run afoul of gcc's alias
detection.


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