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

2024-11-11


2182. Pointer arithmetic in array-like containers

Section: 7.6.6  [expr.add]     Status: drafting     Submitter: Jonathan Wakely     Date: 2015-10-20

The current direction for issue 1776 (see paper P0137) calls into question the validity of doing pointer arithmetic to address separately-allocated but contiguous objects in a container like std::vector. A related question is whether there should be some allowance made for allowing pointer arithmetic using a pointer to a base class if the derived class is a standard-layout class with no non-static data members. It is possible that std::launder could play a part in the resolution of this issue.

Notes from the February, 2016 meeting:

This issue is expected to be resolved by the resolution of issue 1776. The major problem is when the elements of the vector contain constant or reference members; 6.7.3 [basic.life] paragraph 7 implies that pointer arithmetic leading to such an object produces undefined behavior, and CWG expects this to continue. Some changes to the interface of std::vector may be required, perhaps using std::launder as part of iterator processing.