4 General principles [intro]

The constructs in a C++ program create, destroy, refer to, access, and manipulate objects. An object is created by a definition, by a new-expression, when implicitly changing the active member of a union, or when a temporary object is created ([conv.rval], [class.temporary]). An object occupies a region of storage in its period of construction ([class.cdtor]), throughout its lifetime, and in its period of destruction ([class.cdtor]). [ Note: A function is not an object, regardless of whether or not it occupies storage in the way that objects do.  — end note ] The properties of an object are determined when the object is created. An object can have a name. An object has a storage duration which influences its lifetime. An object has a type. Some objects are polymorphic; the implementation generates information associated with each such object that makes it possible to determine that object's type during program execution. For other objects, the interpretation of the values found therein is determined by the type of the expressions (Clause [expr]) used to access them.

Objects can contain other objects, called subobjects. A subobject can be a member subobject ([class.mem]), a base class subobject (Clause [class.derived]), or an array element. An object that is not a subobject of any other object is called a complete object. If an object is created in storage associated with a member subobject or array element e (which may or may not be within its lifetime), the created object is a subobject of e's containing object if:

• (2.1)

  the lifetime of e's containing object has begun and not ended, and

• (2.2)

  the storage for the new object exactly overlays the storage location associated with e, and

• (2.3)

  the new object is of the same type as e (ignoring cv-qualification).

[ Note: If the subobject contains a reference member or a const subobject, the name of the original subobject cannot be used to access the new object ([basic.life]).  — end note ] [ Example:

struct X { const int n; };
union U { X x; float f; };
void tong() {
  U u = {{ 1 }};
  u.f = 5.f;                          // OK, creates new subobject of u ([class.union])
  X *p = new (&u.x) X {2};            // OK, creates new subobject of u
  assert(p->n == 2);                  // OK
  assert(*std::launder(&u.x.n) == 2); // OK
  assert(u.x.n == 2);                 // undefined behavior, u.x does not name new subobject
}

 — end example ]

If a complete object is created ([expr.new]) in storage associated with another object e of type “array of N unsigned char” or of type “array of N std​::​byte” ([cstddef.syn]), that array provides storage for the created object if:

• (3.1)

  the lifetime of e has begun and not ended, and

• (3.2)

  the storage for the new object fits entirely within e, and

• (3.3)

  there is no smaller array object that satisfies these constraints.

[ Note: If that portion of the array previously provided storage for another object, the lifetime of that object ends because its storage was reused ([basic.life]).  — end note ] [ Example:

template<typename ...T>
struct AlignedUnion {
  alignas(T...) unsigned char data[max(sizeof(T)...)];
};
int f() {
  AlignedUnion<int, char> au;
  int *p = new (au.data) int;     // OK, au.data provides storage
  char *c = new (au.data) char(); // OK, ends lifetime of *p
  char *d = new (au.data + 1) char();
  return *c + *d; // OK
}

struct A { unsigned char a[32]; };
struct B { unsigned char b[16]; };
A a;
B *b = new (a.a + 8) B;      // a.a provides storage for *b
int *p = new (b->b + 4) int; // b->b provides storage for *p
                             // a.a does not provide storage for *p (directly),
                             // but *p is nested within a (see below)

 — end example ]

An object a is nested within another object b if:

• (4.1)

  a is a subobject of b, or

• (4.2)

  b provides storage for a, or

• (4.3)

  there exists an object c where a is nested within c, and c is nested within b.

For every object x, there is some object called the complete object of x, determined as follows:

• (5.1)

  If x is a complete object, then the complete object of x is itself.

• (5.2)

  Otherwise, the complete object of x is the complete object of the (unique) object that contains x.

If a complete object, a data member, or an array element is of class type, its type is considered the most derived class, to distinguish it from the class type of any base class subobject; an object of a most derived class type or of a non-class type is called a most derived object.

Unless it is a bit-field, a most derived object shall have a nonzero size and shall occupy one or more bytes of storage. Base class subobjects may have zero size. An object of trivially copyable or standard-layout type shall occupy contiguous bytes of storage.

Unless an object is a bit-field or a base class subobject of zero size, the address of that object is the address of the first byte it occupies. Two objects a and b with overlapping lifetimes that are not bit-fields may have the same address if one is nested within the other, or if at least one is a base class subobject of zero size and they are of different types; otherwise, they have distinct addresses.5

[ Example:

static const char test1 = 'x';
static const char test2 = 'x';
const bool b = &test1 != &test2;      // always true

 — end example ]

[ Note: C++ provides a variety of fundamental types and several ways of composing new types from existing types ([basic.types]).  — end note ]