what is the advantage of explicit over imolicit in c++

[sanjaya.swain]

Hi,

I have a doubt regarding explicit and implicit declaration in c++.

what is the advantage of explicit over implicit in c++.

is it always better to use explicit ?


Regards
Sanjaya

 

[aiooua]

what is the advantage of explicit over implicit in c++.

single argument constructors may lead to undesirable type-conversions
- see section 11.7.1 from TC++PL for a good example.
the 'explicit' keyword gives you the ability to inform the compiler
when such conversions must not be generated.

there's no 'advantage' of it - only usage.

--

 

[James Kanze]

There is no "advantage" in using one over the other, except perhaps for
implicit conversions reducing typing in your code, because explicit
conversions need to be specified explicitly.

Implicit conversions have several significant effects: they make the
code significantly less readable (except in special cases), and
significantly more error prone. Outside of special cases where
they are part of the idiom (e.g. proxies), they should be
avoided.