Question

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When does invoking a member function on a null instance result in undefined behavior?
C++ standard: dereferencing NULL pointer to get a reference?

Say I have the class:

class A
{
public:
   void foo() { cout << "foo"; }
};

and call foo like so:

A* a = NULL;
a->foo();

I suspect this invokes undefined behavior, since it’s equivalent to (*a).foo() (or is it?), and dereferencing a NULL is UB, but I can’t find the reference. Can anyone help me out? Or is it defined?

No, the function is not virtual. No, I’m not accessing any members.

EDIT: I voted to close this question but will not delete it as I couldn’t find the duplicate myself, and I suspect this title might be easier to find by others.

Answer 1

I’m looking for the reference that says a->x is equivalent to (*a).x.

Here it is:

[C++11: 5.2.5/2]: For the first option (dot) the first expression shall have complete class type. For the second option (arrow) the first expression shall have pointer to complete class type. The expression E1->E2 is converted to the equivalent form (*(E1)).E2; the remainder of 5.2.5 will address only the first option (dot). In either case, the id-expression shall name a member of the class or of one of its base classes. [ Note: because the name of a class is inserted in its class scope (Clause 9), the name of a class is also considered a nested member of that class. —end note ] [ Note: 3.4.5 describes how names are looked up after the . and -> operators. —end note ]

There is no direct quotation for dereferencing a NULL pointer being UB, unfortunately. You may find more under this question: When does invoking a member function on a null instance result in undefined behavior?