Hello *,

I would like to ask the developers of boost::any if the ctor template in boost::any

        template<typename ValueType>
        any(const ValueType & value)
          : content(new holder<ValueType>(value))
        {
        }


is intentionally not marked as explicit. Today using boost::any_cast and with a std::map (mapping of some id to boost::any) iterator I was wondering why I got an exception when I found a correct any instance.


My code looked like:

map_type::const_iterator  iter = map.find(Key);
if(map.end()!=iter)
   return boost::any_cast<SomeResultType const&>(*iter);


Unforturenately, I forgot that map iterator references a pair<KeyType, ValueType>. This cast caused the compiler to implicitly create a new const any type containing the dereferenced pair and throw an exception that my expected result type was wrong. I don't know which design rationale was intended when this ctor was not marked as explicit or if it is a bug.



With Kind Regards,
Ovanes



BTW, I use boost 1.34.1 and vc 7.1.