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
[Voted into the WP at the March, 2009 meeting.]
According to 14.2 [except.throw] paragraph 3,
The type of the throw-expression shall not be an incomplete type, or a pointer to an incomplete type other than (possibly cv-qualified) void.
This disallows cases like the following, because str has an incomplete type (an array of unknown size):
extern const char str[]; void f() { throw str; }
The array-to-pointer conversion is applied to the operand of throw, so there's no problem creating the exception object, which is the reason for the restriction on incomplete types. I believe this case should be permitted.
Notes from the April, 2005 meeting:
The CWG agreed that the example should be permitted. Note that the reference to throw-expression in the cited text is incorrect; a throw-expression includes the throw keyword and is always of type void. This wording problem is addressed in the proposed resolution for issue 475.
Proposed resolution (October, 2006)
Change 14.2 [except.throw] paragraph 3 as indicated:
...The type of the throw-expression shall notIf the type of the exception object would be an incomplete type, or a pointer to an incomplete type other than (possibly cv-qualified) void the program is ill-formed...