Function with parameter type that has a copy-constructor with non-const ref chosen?

Posted by Johannes Schaub - litb on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Johannes Schaub - litb
Published on 2011-01-16T09:05:54Z Indexed on 2011/01/16 10:53 UTC
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Some time ago I was confused by the following behavior of some code when I wanted to write a is_callable<F, Args...> trait. Overload resolution won't call functions accepting arguments by non-const ref, right? Why doesn't it reject in the following because the constructor wants a Test&? I expected it to take f(int)!

struct Test {
  Test() { }

  // I want Test not be copyable from rvalues!
  Test(Test&) { }

  // But it's convertible to int
  operator int() { return 0; }
};

void f(int) { }
void f(Test) { }

struct WorksFine { };
struct Slurper { Slurper(WorksFine&) { } };
struct Eater { Eater(WorksFine) { } };

void g(Slurper) { }
void g(Eater) { } // chooses this, as expected

int main() {
  // Error, why?
  f(Test());

  // But this works, why?
  g(WorksFine());
}

Error message is

m.cpp: In function 'int main()':
m.cpp:33:11: error: no matching function for call to 'Test::Test(Test)'
m.cpp:5:3: note: candidates are: Test::Test(Test&)
m.cpp:2:3: note:                 Test::Test()
m.cpp:33:11: error:   initializing argument 1 of 'void f(Test)'

Can you please explain why one works but the other doesn't?

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