GNU Info

(gcc-295.info)Lvalues

---

Next: Conditionals Prev: Typeof Up: C Extensions

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Generalized Lvalues
===================

   Compound expressions, conditional expressions and casts are allowed
as lvalues provided their operands are lvalues.  This means that you
can take their addresses or store values into them.

   Standard C++ allows compound expressions and conditional expressions
as lvalues, and permits casts to reference type, so use of this
extension is deprecated for C++ code.

   For example, a compound expression can be assigned, provided the last
expression in the sequence is an lvalue.  These two expressions are
equivalent:

     (a, b) += 5
     a, (b += 5)

   Similarly, the address of the compound expression can be taken.
These two expressions are equivalent:

     &(a, b)
     a, &b

   A conditional expression is a valid lvalue if its type is not void
and the true and false branches are both valid lvalues.  For example,
these two expressions are equivalent:

     (a ? b : c) = 5
     (a ? b = 5 : (c = 5))

   A cast is a valid lvalue if its operand is an lvalue.  A simple
assignment whose left-hand side is a cast works by converting the
right-hand side first to the specified type, then to the type of the
inner left-hand side expression.  After this is stored, the value is
converted back to the specified type to become the value of the
assignment.  Thus, if `a' has type `char *', the following two
expressions are equivalent:

     (int)a = 5
     (int)(a = (char *)(int)5)

   An assignment-with-arithmetic operation such as `+=' applied to a
cast performs the arithmetic using the type resulting from the cast,
and then continues as in the previous case.  Therefore, these two
expressions are equivalent:

     (int)a += 5
     (int)(a = (char *)(int) ((int)a + 5))

   You cannot take the address of an lvalue cast, because the use of its
address would not work out coherently.  Suppose that `&(int)f' were
permitted, where `f' has type `float'.  Then the following statement
would try to store an integer bit-pattern where a floating point number
belongs:

     *&(int)f = 1;

   This is quite different from what `(int)f = 1' would do--that would
convert 1 to floating point and store it.  Rather than cause this
inconsistency, we think it is better to prohibit use of `&' on a cast.

   If you really do want an `int *' pointer with the address of `f',
you can simply write `(int *)&f'.