Qt 5: const char * QString cast - c++

In Qt 4 it is possible to automatically cast a QString to a "const char *", e.g. I could pass a QString to a function that expected a "const char *".
void myFunction(const char *parameter);
QString myString;
myFunction(myString); //works in QT4
In Qt 5 I would however get an "error C2440: 'type cast' : cannot convert from 'QString' to 'const char *'" (that is the Visual C++ 2008 compiler, other compilers would throw something similar). If I understand the documentation correctly, it is because the Qt 3 compatibility layer is not included anymore in QT5.
Of course, I could change the function call from
myFunction(myString);
to
myFunction(myString.toLatin1().data());
However, I have a huge code base that compiles fine with Qt 4 and I would really like to have my old code compile with Qt 5 without modifying it. Is there any way to achieve this?

You could create a macro or inline function for your purpose to minimize the changes, but since that would also require a grep alike operation, there is not much difference.
#define QString2charp(myString) myString.toLatin1().data()
or
inline char* QString2charp (const QString &myString)
{
return myString.toLatin1().data();
}
and then:
myFunction(QString2charp(myString));
BUT
of course, in an ideal world, it would be nice if your "myFunction" could get an overload expecting a QString argument.
void myFunction(const char *parameter);
void myFunction(QString parameter);
and then the overload would be implemented like this:
void myFunction(const QString &parameter)
{
myFunction(myString.toLatin1().data());
}
of course, this would require the constructor being explicit so that no implicit conversion can happen, otherwise the compiler will complain about ambiguity in presence of both when trying to pass const char*, but if you always use QString, it should just work with Qt 5.
This is somewhat equal to rewriting the original function to a different signature expecting QString though because unfortunately the corresponding constructor is not explicit. I imagine that was not changed in Qt 5 for compatibility as it would have broken too much code.
As you can see, you do not need to change anything in your code this way, other than adding a one-liner overload. It is neat, isn't it?

You could either
Change the signature of your function to MyFunction( const QString & parameter ) (of course that works only if you don't need the one that takes char * any more)
Overload MyFunction:
void myFunction(const char *parameter); //this is your normal function
void myFunction( const QString & parameter )
{
char * c_str = nullptr;
<convert parameter to char * in any way that suits you>
myFunction( c_str );
}
If the above is impossible for some reason, the best approach is probably to write a similar wrapper:
void MyFunctionWrapper( const QString & parameter )
{
<same as above>
}

It is no longer possible to cast QString to const char* in >= Qt 5, because QString is UTF-16 and no longer has an entry for caching the result of converting to ASCII.
The way to achieve your aim is
a) Add overloads to the functions expecting const char* which can handle QStrings,
b) Add the explicit conversion code to the call-site, or
c) Go to some char-based string, like std::string.
None of those fulfill your aim of nearly no changes though.

I found this on QT forum
const QByteArray byteArray = mytext = textBox.text().toUtf8();
const char *mytext = byteArray.constData();
This resolved my issue

Related

prevent string literals from being converted to bool versus std::string

Similar questions have been asked before, such as String literal matches bool overload instead of std::string.
But what I want to know is what should C++ developers do to prevent this from happening? As someone who writes C++ libraries for others to consume, what should I do to ensure this doesn't happen? Here is the example I ran into today, where a library had 2 initialize() methods:
void initialize(bool someflag) { /* ... */ }
void initialize(const std::string & name) { /* ... */ }
Now the problematic code was in the application that wanted to utilize this functionality and which called it in a manner similar to this:
initialize("robert");
At first glance you'd think that this would call initialize(string) but it actually calls the first initialize(bool) with a boolean flag set to true!
Yes, I know it can be fixed with this:
initialize( std::string("robert") );
But this puts the onus on the caller.
Edit for #zdan: I didn't consider the "solutions" in the other linked question to be great solutions since 1) I was hoping not to have to add a const char * version of every method that takes a bool or string, and 2) the template solution increases the maintainability of the code significantly for affected methods, renders them almost unreadable.
what should I do to ensure this doesn't happen?
One possibility is to create an overload that accepts a char const* and make it a pass through to the overload that accepts a std::string.
void initialize(char const* name) { initialize(std::string(name)); }

Why doesn't QTest allow const char* as a test data format?

So I'm using Qt's QTest framework with the "data driven" approach. I can define the test data like so:
Q_DECLARE_METATYPE (const int*);
void MyTest::testSomething_data ()
{
QTest::addColumn<const int*> ("rawIntegerData");
// ...
}
Now I try do to the same thing with const char* instead of const int*...
Q_DECLARE_METATYPE (const char*);
void MyTest::testSomething_data ()
{
QTest::addColumn<const char*> ("rawTextData");
// ...
}
...and I get a failed static assertion:
const char* is not allowed as a test data format.
Turns out that QTest::addColumn explicitly rejects const char* in qtestcase.h.
I realize that QByteArray is probably a viable alternative, but I was wondering: what is the reason that const char * is not allowed here?
This is the commit message for that change:
Clarify assert on use of const char* as TestData type in tests.
Currently all C-style strings used as data types in QTest::addColumn
will assert at runtime with, e.g.: "expected data of type 'const
char*', got 'QString' for element 0 of data with tab 'blah'". This
patch makes it clear that C-style strings are disallowed.
There are some comments in the Code Review here

QString variable changed to QCharRef when i use pointers in method

Hello everyone I am trying to get to know pointers better and I stumbled into a Qt type change. I have made a QString array and gave the pointer to the array to a method. But when I try to use a QString functions it give a error and says that it is a QCharRef which does not have the member function isEmpty().
The code:
QString data_array[2][3] =
{
{"11:28:8","Room 1","Presence detected"},
{"11:38:8","Room 1","No presence"}
}
bool method(QString *_data_array)
{
QString *data_array = _data_array;
return data_array[0][1].isEmpty(); /* changed to QCharRef */
}
My question is why does this happen and how can I prevent it or change it?
The reason for which you are getting QCharRef is due to how QString is built. The [] operator returns one character from a QString (QString is built up from QChars, much like strings in C/C++ are character arrays). From the Qt documentation:
The return value is of type QCharRef, a helper class for QString. When you get an object of type QCharRef, you can use it as if it were a QChar &. If you assign to it, the assignment will apply to the character in the QString from which you got the reference.
So what that means for you is that when you use the lovely square bracket operators, you are no longer using a QString, you are using a QChar reference.
As for how to change it, QChar's isNull() seems like it would fit your uses. so instead try return data_array[0][1].isNull(); and that should work.
I would also look into QStringList if you're doing things with lists of strings

How can I ensure that correct function is called in case there are multiple candidates

In C++ is perfectly legitimate to do:
bool x = "hi";
Because "hi" is translated by compiler to a char array and returns a pointer to that array, which is a number and number can be implicitly converted to bool (0 is false, anything else is true).
So I have these ctor:
Exception(QString Text, bool __IsRecoverable = true);
Exception(QString Text, QString _Source, bool __IsRecoverable = true);
Sadly I figured out that calling
Exception *e = new Exception("error happened", "main.cpp #test");
It creates a new instance of "Exception" class which is created using Exception(QString Text, bool __IsRecoverable = true); constructor, which is wrong to a point.
Is there a simple way to ensure that correct function is called, other than restructuring the constructors entirely, changing position of arguments, etc?
Firstly, I'm not sure why you're dynamically allocating an exception class. I'm not sure that's ever a good idea.
You can explicitly construct a QString:
Exception e("error happened", QString("main.cpp #test"));
Or you can pass the third argument:
Exception e("error happened", "main.cpp #test", true);
Or you can add an additional constructor that takes const char* and will be preferred over the conversion to bool:
Exception(QString Text, const char* Source, bool IsRecoverable = true);
You can easily make this forward to the QString version. Also note that names beginning with an underscore and a capital letter or with two underscores are reserved.
My suggestion would be to not use default arguments. They contribute to overload resolution problems like this, and anyway it is not very readable to just see true as an argument. Whoever's reading the code then has to stop and go look up what the true means. Even if it's yourself you may forget it in a few months time when you come back to the code, especially if you do this sort of thing a lot.
For example:
struct Exception: public whatever
{
Exception(char const *text);
Exception(char const *text, char const *source);
};
struct RecoverableException: public Exception
{
RecoverableException(char const *text);
RecoverableException(char const *text, char const *source);
};
It's a little bit more typing in this source file but the payoff is that your code which actually uses the exceptions is simpler and clearer.
To implement these constructors you could have them all call a particular function in the .cpp file with relevant arguments selecting which behaviour you want.
I have a preference for using char const * rather than QString as I am paranoid about two things:
unwanted conversions
memory allocation failure
If constructing a QString throws then things go downhill fast. But you may choose to not worry about this possibility because if the system ran out of memory and your exception handling doesn't prepare for that possibility then it's going to terminate either way.

How to avoid deprecated conversion from string constant to 'char*' in C++

I would like to call the following code in C++, which I cannot change:
void getAge(char *name)
{
// do something
}
When I call it with getAge("hello");, it has the following warning:
warning: deprecated conversion from string constant to 'char*'
but there is no warning in C code. What is the difference, and how do I change the call to avoid the warning in C++?
the function […] can not be changed
Then write a wrapper around the function and copy the string – or, if you feel lucky (= you know that the string won’t be modified inside the original function), explicitly cast away const-ness:
void getAge(char const* name) {
the_namespace::getAge(const_cast<char*>(name));
}
If you’re unsure whether the function modifies its parameters, use something like the following – however, if that’s the case then calling the function with a string literal (getAge("hello")) would have been invalid anyway.
void getAge(char const* name) {
std::string buffer(name);
the_namespace::getAge(&buffer[0]);
}
Here we copy the string into a modifiable buffer and pass an address to its first character to the original function.
The safest way is to copy the string, then call the C function:
void getAgeSafe(const char* name)
{
std::vector<char> tmp = name?
std::vector<char>(name, name+1+strlen(name))
:std::vector<char>();
getAge( tmp.data() );
}
and call getAgeSafe from your C++ code.
A less safe way that relies on the C code never modifying the char* name would be to const_cast, again in a "wrapping" function:
void getAgeUnsafe(const char* name)
{
getAge( const_cast<char*>(name) );
}
but this time the name is more scary, as is the operation. If you call getAge with a compile time constant string like "bob", if getAge modifies its input, undefined behavior results (this is true in both C and C++ -- C++ at least warns you about it).
You can try getAge((char*)"hello").
In c++ you can write it like this,
void getAge(string name)
{
// do something
}
and also include the header file #include<string> because you are using string now