Overcoming the "Most Vexing Parse" Problem

"The C++ literature uses the phrase "most vexing parse" to denote one of the dark syntactic alleys of C++. It's vexing because programmers usually don't even know it exists; they assume that their code creates an object initialized with a temporary, whereas the compiler interprets that same code as no less than a function declaration. This 10-Minute Solution explains where and why that parse problem happens, and presents two simple techniques to avert it.

"You define an object whose initializer is a temporary, but the compiler unexpectedly interprets the code as a function declaration.

"Rewrite your code so that it avoids the most vexing parse problem."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Teaching Kids Programming with Free Programming Languages(Oct 02, 2009)
• C++, the GPU, and Thrust: Sorting Numbers on the GPU(Sep 26, 2009)
• C++ : Understanding pointers(Sep 17, 2009)
• C++0x Forward Enum Declarations Cut Down Compilation Time and Dependencies(Aug 13, 2009)
• C++0x not before 2010 and without 'concepts'(Jul 26, 2009)
• Click2try Adds Linux C/C++ Developer Workstation(Jul 08, 2009)
• C/C++ reference counting with atomic variables and gcc(May 28, 2009)
• Learning C/C++ Step-By-Step(Jan 09, 2009)