Interesting Stuff

I’ve found another interesting wrinkle in the ternary operator. So, here’s a bonus question for that quiz from last time. You start with the following code:

class Abstract;
class DerivedOne;  // Inherits from Abstract
class DerivedTwo;  // Inherits from Abstract
Abstract x;
DerivedOne one;
DerivedTwo two;
bool test;

Again, you can assume that all of these are defined/initialized (and you can assume the comments are correct—both Derived* classes inherit from Abstract). Now, consider these snippets:

if (test) x = one;
else x = two;

x = (test ? one : two);
 

Another unexpected answer →

In today’s installment of “why not to program in C++,” I give you the following quiz, which Dustin, Steve, Tom, and I had to figure out today (Dustin’s code was doing the weirdest things, and we eventually traced it down to this):

Suppose you start out with the following code:

class Argument;
Argument x;
void Foo(const Argument& arg);
bool test;

You can assume that all of these are defined/initialized elsewhere in the code. For each pair of code snippets below, decide whether the two snippets are equivalent to each other.

if (test) Foo(x);
else Foo(Argument());

Foo(test ? x : Argument());
 

{ // limit the scope of y
  Argument y;
  Foo(test ? x : y);
}

Foo(test ? x : Argument());
 
 
 

Foo(x);

Foo(test ? x : x);

Foo(x);

Foo(true ? x : Argument());

The answers are worse than you'd think. →