/prelude/evil_casts.hpp

 1#ifndef EVIL_CASTS_HPP
 2#define EVIL_CASTS_HPP
 3
 4// Consider   some_evil_cast<char const *>("foo")   . There are two possible interpretations for the result: either the array should decay into a pointer and be immediately returned, or the bytes making up the array are interpreted as the bytes making up the to-be-returned pointer. cast_dammit_cast does the former, while savage_cast does the latter.
 5
 6template <typename To, typename From> To savage_cast (From const & from)
 7{ return (To const &) from; }
 8  // Can even be used to check endianness:  geordi << hex << savage_cast<uint32_t>("\xef\xbe\xad\xde"))
 9
10template <typename To, typename From> To cast_dammit_cast (From const from)
11{
12  From const & r = from; // from itself is not a reference because we want arrays to decay, so that cast_dammit_cast<char*>("oi") works properly.
13  return (To const &) r;
14}
15
16#endif // header guard