isocpp / CppCoreGuidelines

The C++ Core Guidelines are a set of tried-and-true guidelines, rules, and best practices about coding in C++
http://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines
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Exception to ES.63 for base type without any data member #2206

Open hwisungi opened 3 months ago

hwisungi commented 3 months ago

After fixing a false negative bug in msvc code analysis, some library code were newly tagged for violations of ES.63 rule. One of the patterns that received those warnings was brought to our attention as potential candidate of exception to the rule. Here is the pattern:

    template<typename T>
    struct Tag { /* No data member */ };

    template<typename T>
    constexpr int value(Tag<T>);

    template<typename T>
    struct S : Tag<T> {
        int x;
    };

    template<typename T>
    void f() {
        S<T> s;
        value(s);
    }

Serving as a tag type, Tag does not need any data from the source object to perform its operations. Thus, it should be more efficient for a new instance of T to be created from the source object than creating a pointer / reference to the source object.

So, it was suggested to add an exception for this pattern to rule ES.63.

GabrielDosReis commented 3 months ago

Yes, there is not much cause for slicing concerns in these scenarios of tag-based selection.

Suggestion: warn only if both the base class and the derive class have non-static data members.