Question

I have stumbled on a weird behavior that I just could not explain at first (see ideone):

#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
#include <string>

int main() {
  std::cout << "Reference     : "
            << (void const*)"some data"
            << "\n";

  std::ostringstream s;
  s << "some data";
  std::cout << "Regular Syntax: " << s.str() << "\n";

  std::ostringstream s2;
  std::cout << "Semi inline   : "
            << static_cast<std::ostringstream&>(s2 << "some data").str()
            << "\n";

  std::cout << "Inline        : "
            << dynamic_cast<std::ostringstream&>(
                 std::ostringstream() << "some data"
               ).str()
            << "\n";
}

Gives the output:

Reference     : 0x804a03d
Regular Syntax: some data
Semi inline   : some data
Inline        : 0x804a03d

Surprisingly, in the last cast we have the address, and not the content!

Why is that so ?

Answer 1

The expressionstd::ostringstream() creates a temporary, and operator<< which takes const char* as argument is a free function, but this free function cannot be called on a temporary, as the type of the first parameter of the function is std::ostream& which cannot be bound to temporary object.

Having said that, <<std::ostringstream() << "some data" resolves to a call to a member function which is overloaded for void* which prints the address. Note that a member function can be invoked on the temporary.

In order to call the free function, you need to convert temporary (which is rvalue) into a lvalue, and here is one trick that you can do:

 std::cout << "Inline        : "
            << dynamic_cast<std::ostringstream&>(
                 std::ostringstream().flush() << "some data"
               ).str()
            << "\n";

That is, std::ostringstream().flush() returns std::ostream& which means, now the free function can called, passing the returned reference as first argument.

Also, you don’t need to use dynamic_cast here (which is slow, as it is done at runtime), for the type of the object is pretty much known, and so you can use static_cast (which is fast as it is done at compile-time):

 std::cout << "Inline        : "
            << static_cast<std::ostringstream&>(
                 std::ostringstream().flush() << "some data"
               ).str()
            << "\n";

which should work just fine.