Re: [Boost-users] [serialization] size_t vs unsigned warnings

From: Peter Dimov (pdimov_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-02-23 15:11:26

n.torrey.pines wrote:
> Hi
>
> Line 36 in collections_save_imp.hpp says:
>
> unsigned int count = s.size();
>
> I'm getting many pages of warnings in VC++2005 stemming from this
> line. Would it make sense to change that to
>
> std::size_t count = s.size()  ?

No. size_t is a typedef. It could map to unsigned int on one version of the 
compiler and to unsigned long on another. Saving something as an unsigned 
int and loading it as an unsigned long is not guaranteed to work. By making 
this change, you may be introducing a subtle forward compatibility issue 
into your data files.