On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 9:55 PM, nice sw123 wrote:

Hi,

can anyone explain why an any_cast that adds a low-level const throws??

Example: char str[] = "a2"; boost::any ay(str); boost::any_cast(ay); // throws, since a const is added!!!

The only way to do this (without throwing), seems to be: boost::any_cast(ay);

But why this mild "design deficiency"??

If I change this code https://github.com/boostorg/any/blob/ed7cac4ee207b125aa25144f2674f9550def223... to template<typename ValueType> ValueType * any_cast(any * operand) BOOST_NOEXCEPT { return &static_cast *>(operand->content)->held; /* return operand && operand->type() == boost::typeindex::type_id<ValueType>() ? &static_cast *>(operand->content)->held : 0; */ } then I can do what I want!! Then adding low-level const is fine!!! (Probably I remove some safety, for truely illegal casts; but at least I have proof that it would be possible to add low-level const! Does any C++ guru have suggestions on integrating typesafety, but still allowing low-level const to be added? Thanks ) With the above changes, the following now actually works: same code as in first post /////// #include <iostream> #include <algorithm> #include int main() { char str[] = "a1"; boost::any ay(str); std::cout << "1 -- " << boost::any_cast(ay) << std::endl; strcpy(str, "a2"); std::cout << "2 -- " << boost::any_cast(ay) << std::endl; // -> no throws !!! strcpy(str, "a3"); std::cout << "3 -- " << *boost::any_cast(&ay) << std::endl; strcpy(str, "a4"); std::cout << "4 -- " << *boost::any_cast(&ay) << std::endl; // -> no segault !!! char str2[] = "str2"; std::cout << "str2 -- " << static_cast(str2) << std::endl; return 0; } ///////