does c++ have an equivalent boost::numeric_cast<DestType>(SourceType)?

Question

I am doing a bunch of applied-mathematics/signal-processing/algorithms C++ code.

I have enabled the -Wconversion compiler warning to catch issues like runtime conversion of numbers that are type double to type int32_t.

Obviously I am always concerned during these conversions because:

• loss of the numbers decimal value
• possible positive or negative overflow ("positive overflow" is when a double has a value greater than INT32_MAX and tries to store that value in the destination type (int32_t in this case))

Whenever I am concerned about such a conversion I usually use the one-liner check:

boost::numeric_cast<DestType>(SourceType)

However I would like to do the same thing without boost.

Does straight C++ have an equivalent boost::numeric_cast<DestType>(SourceType)?

If straight C++ does not have an equivalent, what would be a comparable non-boost implementation?

I would think a somewhat comparable check would be basically a template function that has a single if statement to check the input parameter against positive or negative overflow (by using the std::numeric_limits<DestType> ::max() and ::min() and throws an exception).

Answer 1

As @SergeyA stated, no the standard C++ spec does not currently have an equivalent to Boost's boost::numeric_cast<typename Destination>(Source value).

Here is a straight-forward implementation that uses only standard C++:

template<typename Dst, typename Src>
inline Dst numeric_cast(Src value)
{
    typedef std::numeric_limits<Dst> DstLim;
    typedef std::numeric_limits<Src> SrcLim;

    const bool positive_overflow_possible = DstLim::max() < SrcLim::max();
    const bool negative_overflow_possible =
            SrcLim::is_signed
            or
            (DstLim::lowest() > SrcLim::lowest());

    // unsigned <-- unsigned
    if((not DstLim::is_signed) and (not SrcLim::is_signed)) {
        if(positive_overflow_possible and (value > DstLim::max())) {
            throw std::overflow_error(__PRETTY_FUNCTION__ +
                                      std::string(": positive overflow"));
        }
    }
    // unsigned <-- signed
    else if((not DstLim::is_signed) and SrcLim::is_signed) {
        if(positive_overflow_possible and (value > DstLim::max())) {
            throw std::overflow_error(__PRETTY_FUNCTION__ +
                                      std::string(": positive overflow"));
        }
        else if(negative_overflow_possible and (value < 0)) {
            throw std::overflow_error(__PRETTY_FUNCTION__ +
                                      std::string(": negative overflow"));
        }

    }
    // signed <-- unsigned
    else if(DstLim::is_signed and (not SrcLim::is_signed)) {
        if(positive_overflow_possible and (value > DstLim::max())) {
            throw std::overflow_error(__PRETTY_FUNCTION__ +
                                      std::string(": positive overflow"));
        }
    }
    // signed <-- signed
    else if(DstLim::is_signed and SrcLim::is_signed) {
        if(positive_overflow_possible and (value > DstLim::max())) {
            throw std::overflow_error(__PRETTY_FUNCTION__ +
                                      std::string(": positive overflow"));
        } else if(negative_overflow_possible and (value < DstLim::lowest())) {
            throw std::overflow_error(__PRETTY_FUNCTION__ +
                                      std::string(": negative overflow"));
        }
    }

    // limits have been checked, therefore safe to cast
    return static_cast<Dst>(value);
} 

notes:

• compiler is g++ version 4.8.5.
• compiler flags:
  • -std=c++0x
  • -O0
  • -g3
  • -pedantic
  • -pedantic-errors
  • -Wall
  • -Wextra
  • -Werror
  • -Wconversion
  • -c
  • -fmessage-length=0
  • -Wsign-conversion
  • -fPIC
  • -MMD
  • -MP
• for floating point types you can't use std::numeric_limits<float>::min() but instead must use std::numeric_limits<Dst>::lowest() because ::min returns is 1e-38 instead of a negative floating point value
• lots of the std::numeric_limits are const expressions and so the compiler will be able to greatly simplify this at compile time (i.e. N if statements will be reduced to one if-statement at compile time or none)