This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 Core Issues List revision 115d. See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official list.

2024-10-26

1059. Cv-qualified array types (with rvalues)

[Moved to DR at the October, 2012 meeting.]

In spite of the resolution of issue 112, the exact relationship between cv-qualifiers and array types is not clear. There does not appear to be a definitive normative statement answering the question of whether an array with a const-qualified element type is itself const-qualified; the statement in 6.8.5 [basic.type.qualifier] paragraph 5,

Cv-qualifiers applied to an array type attach to the underlying element type, so the notation “cv T,” where T is an array type, refers to an array whose elements are so-qualified. Such array types can be said to be more (or less) cv-qualified than other types based on the cv-qualification of the underlying element types.

hints at an answer but is hardly decisive. For example, is the following example well-formed?

    template <class T> struct is_const {
        static const bool value = false;
    };
    template <class T> struct is_const<const T> {
        static const bool value = true;
    };

    template <class T> void f(T &) {
        char checker[is_const<T>::value];
    }

    int const arr[1] = {};

    int main() {
        f(arr);
    }

Also, when 7.2.1 [basic.lval] paragraph 4 says,

Class prvalues can have cv-qualified types; non-class prvalues always have cv-unqualified types.

does this apply to array rvalues, as it appears? That is, given

    struct S {
        const int arr[10];
    };

is the array rvalue S().arr an array of int or an array of const int?

(The more general question is, when the Standard refers to non-class types, should it be considered to include array types? Or perhaps only arrays of non-class types?)

Proposed resolution (December, 2011):

1. Change 6.8.5 [basic.type.qualifier] paragraph 5 as follows:

...Cv-qualifiers applied to an array type attach to the underlying element type, so the notation “cv T,” where T is an array type, refers to an array whose elements are so-qualified. Such array types can be said to be more (or less) cv-qualified than other types based on the cv-qualification of the underlying element types. An array type whose elements are cv-qualified is also considered to have the same cv-qualification as its elements. [Example:

  typedef char CA[5];
  typedef const char CC;
  CC arr1[5] = { 0 };
  const CA arr2 = { 0 };

The type of both arr1 and arr2 is “array of 5 const char,” and the array type is considered to be const-qualified. —end example]

2. Change 7.2.1 [basic.lval] paragraph 4 as follows:

Class and array prvalues can have cv-qualified types; non-class other prvalues always have cv-unqualified types. Unless otherwise indicated...