Hi,

On Wed, Aug 06, 2014 at 01:19:44PM -0400, David Malcolm wrote:
> In many circumstances, is_a_helper <T>::test assumes that the pointer is
> non-NULL, but sometimes you have a pointer of type T that can be NULL.
> 
> Earlier versions of this patch kit made numerous uses of the ternary
> operator to handle nullable pointers e.g.:
> 
>   return insn ? as_a <rtx_insn *> (insn) : NULL;
> 
> but this was ugly.  Instead, introduce an as_a_nullable<T> variant that
> adds a check for NULL, so the above can be written simply as:
> 
>   return as_a_nullable <rtx_insn *> (insn);

A tiny bikeshedding, disregard it if you don't like it: however, the
"nullable" part of the name suggests the pointer can be NULLed in the
process.  I think that variants of functions that survive NULL
arguments are traditionally called "safe" in gcc, so what about
"safe_as" (or safely_as)?

Martin


> 
> gcc/
>       * is-a.h (template<T, U> as_a_nullable <U *p>) New function.
> ---
>  gcc/is-a.h | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 24 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/gcc/is-a.h b/gcc/is-a.h
> index a14e344..f50e62c 100644
> --- a/gcc/is-a.h
> +++ b/gcc/is-a.h
> @@ -46,6 +46,14 @@ TYPE as_a <TYPE> (pointer)
>  
>        do_something_with (as_a <cgraph_node *> *ptr);
>  
> +TYPE as_a_nullable <TYPE> (pointer)
> +
> +    Like as_a <TYPE> (pointer), but where pointer could be NULL.  This
> +    adds a check against NULL where the regular is_a_helper hook for TYPE
> +    assumes non-NULL.
> +
> +      do_something_with (as_a_nullable <cgraph_node *> *ptr);
> +
>  TYPE dyn_cast <TYPE> (pointer)
>  
>      Converts pointer to TYPE if and only if "is_a <TYPE> pointer".  
> Otherwise,
> @@ -185,6 +193,22 @@ as_a (U *p)
>    return is_a_helper <T>::cast (p);
>  }
>  
> +/* Similar to as_a<>, but where the pointer can be NULL, even if
> +   is_a_helper<T> doesn't check for NULL.  */
> +
> +template <typename T, typename U>
> +inline T
> +as_a_nullable (U *p)
> +{
> +  if (p)
> +    {
> +      gcc_checking_assert (is_a <T> (p));
> +      return is_a_helper <T>::cast (p);
> +    }
> +  else
> +    return NULL;
> +}
> +
>  /* A generic checked conversion from a base type U to a derived type T.  See
>     the discussion above for when to use this function.  */
>  
> -- 
> 1.8.5.3
> 

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