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- [section Gotchas]
- [section A note about optional<bool>]
- `optional<bool>` should be used with special caution and consideration.
- First, it is functionally similar to a tristate boolean (false, maybe, true)
- —such as __BOOST_TRIBOOL__— except that in a tristate boolean, the maybe state
- [_represents a valid value], unlike the corresponding state of an uninitialized
- `optional<bool>`.
- It should be carefully considered if an `optional<bool>` instead of a `tribool`
- is really needed.
- Second, although `optional<>` provides a contextual conversion to `bool` in C++11,
- this falls back to an implicit conversion on older compilers. This conversion refers
- to the initialization state and not to the contained value. Using `optional<bool>`
- can lead to subtle errors due to the implicit `bool` conversion:
- void foo ( bool v ) ;
- void bar()
- {
- optional<bool> v = try();
- // The following intended to pass the value of 'v' to foo():
- foo(v);
- // But instead, the initialization state is passed
- // due to a typo: it should have been foo(*v).
- }
- The only implicit conversion is to `bool`, and it is safe in the sense that
- typical integral promotions don't apply (i.e. if `foo()` takes an `int`
- instead, it won't compile).
- Third, mixed comparisons with `bool` work differently than similar mixed comparisons between pointers and `bool`, so the results might surprise you:
- optional<bool> oEmpty(none), oTrue(true), oFalse(false);
-
- if (oEmpty == none); // renders true
- if (oEmpty == false); // renders false!
- if (oEmpty == true); // renders false!
-
- if (oFalse == none); // renders false
- if (oFalse == false); // renders true!
- if (oFalse == true); // renders false
-
- if (oTrue == none); // renders false
- if (oTrue == false); // renders false
- if (oTrue == true); // renders true
- In other words, for `optional<>`, the following assertion does not hold:
- assert((opt == false) == (!opt));
- [endsect]
- [section Moved-from `optional`]
- When an optional object that contains a value is moved from (is a source of move constructor or assignment) it still contains a value and its contained value is left in a moved-from state. This can be illustrated with the following example.
- optional<std::unique_ptr<int>> opi {std::make_unique<int>(1)};
- optional<std::unique_ptr<int>> opj = std::move(opi);
- assert (opi);
- assert (*opi == nullptr);
- Quite a lot of people expect that when an object that contains a value is moved from, its contained value should be destroyed. This is not so, for performance reasons. Current semantics allow the implementation of `boost::opiotnal<T>` to be trivially copyable when `T` is trivial.
- [endsect]
- [section Mixed relational comparisons]
- Because `T` is convertible to `optional<T>` and because `opiotnal<T>` is __SGI_LESS_THAN_COMPARABLE__ when `T` is __SGI_LESS_THAN_COMPARABLE__,
- you can sometimes get an unexpected runtime result where you would rather expect a compiler error:
- optional<double> Flight_plan::weight(); // sometimes no weight can be returned
- bool is_aircraft_too_heavy(Flight_plan const& p)
- {
- return p.weight() > p.aircraft().max_weight(); // compiles!
- } // returns false when the optional contains no value
- [endsect]
- [section False positive with -Wmaybe-uninitialized]
- Sometimes on GCC compilers below version 5.1 you may get an -Wmaybe-uninitialized warning when copiling with option -02 on a perfectly valid `boost::optional` usage. For instance in this program:
- #include <boost/optional.hpp>
- boost::optional<int> getitem();
- int main(int argc, const char *[])
- {
- boost::optional<int> a = getitem();
- boost::optional<int> b;
- if (argc > 0)
- b = argc;
- if (a != b)
- return 1;
- return 0;
- }
-
- This is a bug in the compiler. As a workaround (provided in [@http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21755206/how-to-get-around-gcc-void-b-4-may-be-used-uninitialized-in-this-funct this Stack Overflow question]) use the following way of initializing an optional containing no value:
- boost::optional<int> b = boost::make_optional(false, int());
- This is obviously redundant, but makes the warning disappear.
- [endsect]
- [endsect]
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