What are unevaluated operands in C++? (opens in new tab)

(humanreadablemag.com)

71 pointspekalicious6y ago19 comments

19 comments

A fun (or maybe horrifying) bit of trivia is that sizeof in C can end up evaluating its operand in certain cases; namely, when you use it on a VLA: https://godbolt.org/z/-UX2KQ

dgellow6y ago

If you don’t know what SFINAE is (the article uses the acronym a lot but doesn’t define it):

> Substitution failure is not an error (SFINAE) refers to a situation in C++ where an invalid substitution of template parameters is not in itself an error.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitution_failure_is_not_...

kccqzy6y ago

This is a intermediate-level technique that's quite commonly used. Take a look at <type_traits> to find out what you can do with it! Specifically you can use std::enable_if in a return type or template parameter to conditionally enable an overload.

quietbritishjim6y ago

Small typo near start:

> Up to C++17, there are four operators the operands of which are unevaluated: typeof, sizeof, decltype, and noexcept.

"typeof" should be "typeid". This confused me a bit as I thought the article was going to talk about a nonstandard predecessor to decltype.

The article was interesting, but its contents didn't really match it's title. It's not about unevaluated operands in general but just their use in SFINAE specifically. For example, sizeof is dismissed as not much use for SFINAE, which is true but it certainly has a lot of other uses! And if you read this article having not seen decltype before, I think you'd get the wrong impression about its range of uses.

gpderetta6y ago

confusingly typeid can evaluate its expression parameter, if the expression type is polymorphic as the correct type info would be a runtime property (in fact I thought that typeid would always evaluate its parameters, but apparently that's not the case).

haberman6y ago

This seems like a potential solution to the problem of how to #define MY_ASSERT(x) in release mode such that it fails to compile if "x" is not a valid expression.

Previous I have used this idiom:

#define MY_ASSERT(expr) do {} while (false && (expr))

Another possible alternative might be:

#define MY_ASSERT(expr) sizeof(expr)

leni5366y ago

Note that lambda expressions are not allowed in an unevaluated context. What about this?

   #define MY_ASSERT(expr) do {} while (false && ((expr), false))

This doesn't require expr to be convertible to bool.

DerekL6y ago

Actually, the argument of MY_ASSERT should always be convertible to bool, even in release mode.

DerekL6y ago

Why not just

    #define MY_ASSERT(expr) ((void)(false && (expr)))

The problem the do-while idiom is that the macro result is not an expression, so it can’t be used in certain cases.

jcranmer6y ago

> #define MY_ASSERT(expr) sizeof(expr)

sizeof accepts a type or an expression as its input, so it would compile successfully if expr were a type but not a valid expression (say, int).

edflsafoiewq6y ago

You could do sizeof((expr)?1:2) instead, which would also force expr to be contextually convertible to a bool.

1 more reply

leni5366y ago

This kind of tag dispatch to disambiguate is really clever. I never thought of disambiguating based on the conversion of the tag.

Edit: I have probably seen it in concepts lite though, I just forgot about it.

gumby6y ago

I thought this would be about the arm of a conditional not taken but as soon as he listed the operators it all became clear.

nmeofthestate6y ago

I'm a c++ programmer but honestly hate the language more and more with every year, because it's so complex. Can somebody explain the first code sample to me?

dkersten6y ago

I agree. I really liked C++11, it seemed to be a big improvement to the language, but ever since then, its just been getting more and more complex to the point where I no longer feel like I can understand the language at all anymore.

voldacar6y ago

Poor man's lazy evaluation. I'm sure they'll try to shoehorn monads in somehow with C++23

kadoban6y ago

It's not lazy evaluation at all. Lazy evaluation is a runtime thing, where you delay evaluating an expression until you actually need to.

This concept is operators that will never evaluate the expressions they operate on.

sizeof is the oldschool obvious one, sizeof(foo()) never runs the function foo. It's just a way of querying the static properties of an expression, asking specific things about its type in a way.

They're not new things in C++. sizeof has been around since the beginning.

afranchuk6y ago

I'm not sure what lazy evaluation had to do with it... but it's something that will be much easier when concepts are in the language with C++20.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

19 comments

saagarjha6y ago

A fun (or maybe horrifying) bit of trivia is that sizeof in C can end up evaluating its operand in certain cases; namely, when you use it on a VLA: https://godbolt.org/z/-UX2KQ

dgellow6y ago

If you don’t know what SFINAE is (the article uses the acronym a lot but doesn’t define it):

> Substitution failure is not an error (SFINAE) refers to a situation in C++ where an invalid substitution of template parameters is not in itself an error.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitution_failure_is_not_...

kccqzy6y ago

quietbritishjim6y ago

Small typo near start:

> Up to C++17, there are four operators the operands of which are unevaluated: typeof, sizeof, decltype, and noexcept.

"typeof" should be "typeid". This confused me a bit as I thought the article was going to talk about a nonstandard predecessor to decltype.

gpderetta6y ago

haberman6y ago

This seems like a potential solution to the problem of how to #define MY_ASSERT(x) in release mode such that it fails to compile if "x" is not a valid expression.

Previous I have used this idiom:

#define MY_ASSERT(expr) do {} while (false && (expr))

Another possible alternative might be:

#define MY_ASSERT(expr) sizeof(expr)

leni5366y ago

Note that lambda expressions are not allowed in an unevaluated context. What about this?

   #define MY_ASSERT(expr) do {} while (false && ((expr), false))

This doesn't require expr to be convertible to bool.

DerekL6y ago

Actually, the argument of MY_ASSERT should always be convertible to bool, even in release mode.

DerekL6y ago

Why not just

    #define MY_ASSERT(expr) ((void)(false && (expr)))

The problem the do-while idiom is that the macro result is not an expression, so it can’t be used in certain cases.

jcranmer6y ago

> #define MY_ASSERT(expr) sizeof(expr)

sizeof accepts a type or an expression as its input, so it would compile successfully if expr were a type but not a valid expression (say, int).

edflsafoiewq6y ago

You could do sizeof((expr)?1:2) instead, which would also force expr to be contextually convertible to a bool.

1 more reply

leni5366y ago

This kind of tag dispatch to disambiguate is really clever. I never thought of disambiguating based on the conversion of the tag.

Edit: I have probably seen it in concepts lite though, I just forgot about it.

gumby6y ago

I thought this would be about the arm of a conditional not taken but as soon as he listed the operators it all became clear.

nmeofthestate6y ago

I'm a c++ programmer but honestly hate the language more and more with every year, because it's so complex. Can somebody explain the first code sample to me?

dkersten6y ago

voldacar6y ago

Poor man's lazy evaluation. I'm sure they'll try to shoehorn monads in somehow with C++23

kadoban6y ago

It's not lazy evaluation at all. Lazy evaluation is a runtime thing, where you delay evaluating an expression until you actually need to.

This concept is operators that will never evaluate the expressions they operate on.

sizeof is the oldschool obvious one, sizeof(foo()) never runs the function foo. It's just a way of querying the static properties of an expression, asking specific things about its type in a way.

They're not new things in C++. sizeof has been around since the beginning.

afranchuk6y ago

I'm not sure what lazy evaluation had to do with it... but it's something that will be much easier when concepts are in the language with C++20.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse