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CS253 Const

const

• const, when applied to a variable, means that you can’t change it.
• It’s like a final variable in Java.
• It does not mean that the memory is read-only; it just means that you can’t write it.
• A given piece of memory may be read-only to one part of a program, but read-write to another.
• const is also used to indicate an accessor (getter) method.

Example

const int BOARD_SIZE = 8;
char chessboard[BOARD_SIZE][BOARD_SIZE];
for (int i=0; i<BOARD_SIZE; i++)
    for (int j=0; j<BOARD_SIZE; j++)
        chessboard[i][j] = ' ';

if (chessboard[3][2] == ' ')    // Empty position?
    chessboard[3][2] = 'R';     // put a rook there

cout << chessboard[3][2] << '\n';

R

Reference example

void show_name(const string &name) {
    cout << "The name is: “" << name << "”\n";
}

int main(int, char *argv[]) {
    string s = argv[0];
    show_name(s);
}

The name is: “./a.out”

• The string is read-write in main(), but read-only in show_name().
• The string memory itself is read-write. It’s just that show_name() promises not to change it.

It’s all relative

int president = 46;
int &prez = president;
const int &potus = president;
prez = 1;   // ok
potus = 2;  // 🦡 bad

c.cc:5: error: assignment of read-only reference ‘potus’

• Wait—is president read-only or read-write?
• It depends how you access it.
• prez is a read-write view (aspect, avatar) of president.
• potus is a read-only view of president.
• Same as how my lunch is read-write to me, but read-only to you.

constexpr

• constexpr, when applied to a variable, means that you can’t change it, it never changes, and was computed at compile-time.
• Since the value never changes, the compiler can substitute the value wherever you use the variable.
• Use it for true constants:
  • π, Avogadro’s Number
  • number of days in a week
  • number of squares in a chessboard
• We used to do this in the preprocessor with #define TRIPLE_POINT 32.018, which still works, but this is better.
• It’s a shame to call it a “variable” if it never “varies”, but that’s how we talk.

Examples

constexpr auto π = 3.14159;
cout << π << '\n';

3.14159

constexpr double avo=6.022e23;
avo = 1.234;   // 🦡
cout << avo;

c.cc:2: error: assignment of read-only variable ‘avo’

// Oops: process id not known at compile time:
constexpr double pid = getpid();  // 🦡
cout << pid;

c.cc:2: error: call to non-‘constexpr’ function ‘__pid_t getpid()’

Trying to cheat

Let’s try to fool constexpr:

constexpr int answer = 42;
int *p = &answer;  // 🦡
*p = 8675309;
cout << answer << '\n';

c.cc:2: error: invalid conversion from ‘const int*’ to ‘int*’

constexpr int answer = 42;
int *p = const_cast<int *>(&answer);  // 🦡
*p = 8675309;
cout << *p << ' ' << answer << '\n';

8675309 42

Why two different values?

answer is constexpr, so our compiler substituted 42 for answer in the machine code. No fetching, no memory locations—just an inline Platonic 42, unchanged by the cheating code.