Question

Just want to know if there is a disadvantage of not using const_cast While passing a char* and simply type-casting it as (char *) or both are basically one and same ?

  #include <iostream>
  #include<conio.h>
  using namespace std;

  void print(char * str)
  {
    cout << str << endl;
  }

  int main () 
  {
     const char * c = "sample text";
    //  print( const_cast<char *> (c) ); // This one is advantageous or the below one
     print((char *) (c) );               // Does the above one and this are same? 
    getch();
    return 0;
  }

Is there some disadvantage of using print((char *) (c) ); over print( const_cast<char *> (c) ); or basically both are same ?

Answer 1

First of all, your print function should take a const char* parameter instead of just char* since it does not modify it. This eliminates the need for either cast.

As for your question, C++ style casts (i.e. const_cast, dynamic_cast, etc.) are prefered over C-style casts because they express the intent of the cast and they are easy to search for. If I accidentally use an a variable of type int instead of const char*, using const_cast will result in a compile time error. However if I use a C-style cast it will compile successfully but produce some difficult to diagnose memory issues at runtime.