Underlying type of weak typed enum in C++11

Question

C++11 introduced strongly typed enums, with the syntax enum class. These are not compatible with integer types and require explicit casts to obtain their numeric value. C++11 also introduces the ability to specify the storage class for weakly typed enums with the form enum name : type {}. This is fine up to here.

But it looks like even if an weakly typed enum has a given storage class, the type of its items is still int. I tried with Visual Studio 2012, November CTP release. Consider the following code:

enum charEnum : char { A = 'A' };
enum longEnum : long long { Tera = 1000000000000 };

void fct(char val) {}
void fct(int val) {}
void fct(long long val) {}

int main() 
{
    static_assert(sizeof(A) == sizeof(char), "check charEnum size");
    static_assert(sizeof(Tera) == sizeof(long long), "check longEnum size");
    fct('A');  // calls fct(char)
    fct(1);    // calls fct(int)
    fct(2ll);  // calls fct(long long)
    fct(A);    // calls fct(int) !
    fct(Tera); // calls fct(int), with truncation !
    fct((long long)Tera);  // calls fct(long long)
    return 0;
}

The overloaded function called for an enumeration value is always fct(int), even if this results in a truncation of the value. Of course, with an explicit cast, we can call the overloaded function, but this was also possible in traditional C++03 syntax.

Am I missing something obvious? Why is that? Is there a better workaround than an explicit cast?

Answer 1

It's a compiler bug. According to §7.2/9 and §4.5/4:

§7.2/9:
The value of an enumerator or an object of an unscoped enumeration type is converted to an integer by integral promotion (4.5)

§4.5/4:
A prvalue of an unscoped enumeration type whose underlying type is fixed (7.2) can be converted to a prvalue of its underlying type. Moreover, if integral promotion can be applied to its underlying type, a prvalue of an unscoped enumeration type whose underlying type is fixed can also be converted to a prvalue of the promoted underlying type.

The last one should convert to long long, not int. The char case is a point of contention. (!)

---

Test program:

#include <iostream>

enum charEnum : char      { A = 'A' };
enum longEnum : long long { Tera = 1000000000000 };

void fct(char val)      { std::cout << "fct(char)"      << std::endl; }
void fct(int val)       { std::cout << "fct(int)"       << std::endl; }
void fct(long long val) { std::cout << "fct(long long)" << std::endl; }

int main() 
{
    static_assert(sizeof(A)    == sizeof(char),      "check charEnum size");
    static_assert(sizeof(Tera) == sizeof(long long), "check longEnum size");

    fct('A');
    fct(1);
    fct(2ll);
    fct(A);
    fct(Tera);
    fct((long long)Tera);
}

MSVC2012NovCTP output:

fct(char)
fct(int)
fct(long long)
fct(int)
fct(int)
fct(long long)

g++ 4.7.1:

fct(char)
fct(int)
fct(long long)
fct(int)
fct(long long)
fct(long long)