Question

#include <iostream>

class Foo { };

Foo createFoo() { return Foo(); }

void bar(Foo &&) { std::cout << "in bar(Foo &&)\n"; }

void bar(Foo const &) { std::cout << "in bar(Foo const &)\n"; }

void baz(Foo &&f) {
    std::cout << "in baz, ";
    bar(f);
    // bar(std::move(f));
}

int main()
{
    baz(createFoo());
    return 0;
}

My expected output is: in baz, in bar(Foo &&), but I’m getting: in baz, in bar(Foo const &). If I switch the calls to bar (see the comment) I get the expected output, but this seems wrong to me. Is there some reason the compiler can’t call bar(Foo &&) without me converting a Foo&& to a Foo&&?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Inside baz(Foo&& f), f is an lvalue. Therefore, to pass it on to bar as an rvalue reference you have to cast it to an rvalue. You can do this with a static_cast<Foo&&>(f), or with std::move(f).

This is to avoid accidentally moving things multiple times in the same function e.g. with multiple calls to bar(f) inside baz.