Types and Expressions

This chapter seeks to provide a deeper understanding of C++'s strong typing system, and shows how expressions are evaluated and converted.

19.1	Operators	438
19.2	Evaluation of Logical Expressions	443
19.3	Enumerations	443
19.4	Signed and Unsigned Integral Types	445
19.5	Standard Expression Conversions	447
19.6	Explicit Conversions	449
19.7	Safer Typecasting Using ANSI C++ Typecasts	450
19.8	Run-Time Type Identification (RTTI)	454
19.9	Member Selection Operators	457

Here we formally define some terms that we have been using. Operators are special kinds of functions that perform calculations on operands and return results. Operands are the arguments supplied to the operator.

Operators can be thought of as ordinary functions, except that it is possible to call them using operator symbols (e.g.,+, -, *, /, etc.) in addition to the longer function-call syntax.

An expression consists of a single operand, multiple operands with operators interspersed, or functions with arguments. Each expression has a type and a value. The value is obtained by applying the definitions of the operators and/or functions to the operands (and/or arguments).