Thread: const_cast and invalid objects

Hi there,

I am given a pointer: T* (where T is a non-CV type). I do not know whether it points to a valid object or not. It can be given any value and it may be valid or not. I would like to add constness to it using const_cast:

Code:

T* t1 = <possible invalid address, not necessarily null>;
const T* t2 = const_cast<const T*>(t1);

Is this allowed? Notice that I do not access this object. The object is accessed later (proper validation is done at run-time).

I have been looking in the standard and I could not find the answer (const_cast for NULL is defined, but for other addresses?).

I know that in practice it is allowed (since it does not access any v-table or such). Boost's weak_ptr also makes such an assumption even for other casts, so I am going to implement it too, but anyway, I would like to know the answer.

Thanks!

You do not need const_cast to add const. You only need it to remove const.
If you have a pointer, p, of type T*, then const T* p2 = p will do what you want.
Btw, it's bad practice to have any pointer that may be invalid. Make sure the pointers are always valid.

This is an implementation of weak references and it is ensured that they are always valid when accessed. The difference is that regular cast allows casting from a derieved type (which would be fine if it were defined too).