| C++ introduced a collection of named casting operators to replace the conventional C-style cast of the form These refined casting operators are vastly preferred over conventional C casts for C++ programming. In fact, even Stroustrup recommends that the older style of C casts be banished from programming projects where at all possible The C++ Programming Language, 3rd edition . Reasons for preferring the new named casting operators include:
If your compiler does not support the new casting operators, you may have to continue to use C-style casts--and carefully ! I have seen one project agree to use macros such as the one shown below to encourage those involved in the project to adopt the new operators. While the syntax does not match that of the genuine operators, these macros make it easy to later locate and alter the casts where they appear in source code.
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