Union C++ standard

Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@netscape.net>
Thu, 25 Nov 2021 11:11:04 +0100

          From comp.compilers

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Union C++ standard DrDiettrich1@netscape.net (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2021-11-25)
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Re: Union C++ standard david.brown@hesbynett.no (David Brown) (2021-11-27)
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From: Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@netscape.net>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2021 11:11:04 +0100
Organization: Compilers Central
Injection-Info: gal.iecc.com; posting-host="news.iecc.com:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970"; logging-data="44177"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@iecc.com"
Keywords: C, standards
Posted-Date: 26 Nov 2021 12:31:56 EST

Can somebody explain why the access to members of a union is "undefined"
except for the most recently written member?


What can be undefined in a union of data types of the same typesize end
alignment? Any member written will result in a unique bit/byte pattern
in memory, whose reading may not make sense in a different type but
undoubtedly is well defined.


DoDi
[I think it's undefined in a standards sense. In any individual
implementation the result is predictable, but it's not portable. -John]



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