why no implicit conversion from pointer to reference to const pointer.
- by user316606
I'll illustrate my question with code:
#include <iostream>
void PrintInt(const unsigned char*& ptr)
{
int data = 0;
::memcpy(&data, ptr, sizeof(data));
// advance the pointer reference.
ptr += sizeof(data);
std::cout << std::hex << data << " " << std::endl;
}
int main(int, char**)
{
unsigned char buffer[] = { 0x11, 0x11, 0x11, 0x11, 0x22, 0x22, 0x22, 0x22, };
/* const */ unsigned char* ptr = buffer;
PrintInt(ptr); // error C2664: ...
PrintInt(ptr); // error C2664: ...
return 0;
}
When I run this code (in VS2008) I get this: error C2664: 'PrintInt' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'unsigned char *' to 'const unsigned char *&'. If I uncomment the "const" comment it works fine.
However shouldn't pointer implicitly convert into const pointer and then reference be taken? Am I wrong in expecting this to work? Thanks!
