[Boost-users] [any] bug? any_cast<>( any& ) returns by value

From: Marc Mutz (marc_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-02-13 13:34:49

Hi,

I was wondering why any_cast doesn't return a reference (as boost::get does 
for boost::variant). To me, it seems to make little sense to supply a 
any_cast overload with argument any& in addition to const any &, for 
return-by-value. It also needlessly invokes T's copy ctor, which esp bad if 
that one throws.

Both observations considered, I think the implementation should rather be
  template <typename T> T & any_cast( any & );
  template <typename T> const T & any_cast( const any & );
  template <typename T> T * any_cast( any * );
  template <typename T> const T * any_cast( const any * );
Don't you agree?

Thanks,
Marc

-- 
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