Thread: is void* dangerous ?

One time I was walking down the street when all of the sudden a void pointer burst out of a trash can and attacked me...

They are not dangerous. But you need to be careful because casting pointers can get you into trouble if you are a newbie and don't know what it is that you are doing exactly.

Code:

void example1(void *arg) {
    char *str = (char *)arg;
    *str = 'a';
}

void example2(void *arg) {
    long *array = (long *)arg;
    *array = 'a';
}

int main() {
    char str[256];

    memset(str, 0, 256);  //zero out the array
    example1(str);
    cout << "string value: " << str << "\n";

    example2(str);
    cout << "long value: " << str << " (different much?)";
}

Remember that different data types have different sizes. So make sure you are familiar with pointers before playing around with void *'s.