c++c++11boostboost.test

Boost.Test check whether a pointer is null


I have the following test :

BOOST_CHECK_NE(pointer, nullptr);

The compilation fails due to

/xxx/include/boost/test/tools/detail/print_helper.hpp:50:14: error: ambiguous overload for ‘operator<<’ (operand types are ‘std::ostream {aka std::basic_ostream}’ and ‘std::nullptr_t’)

What is wrong and how should I test for null pointers ?


Solution

  • The easiest check for a pointer being non-null is this:

    BOOST_CHECK(pointer);
    

    A null pointer implicitly converts to false, a non-null pointer implicitly converts to true.

    As to what the problem with your use case is: nullptr is not a pointer type, it's of type std::nullptr_t. It can be converted to any pointer type (or pointer to member type). However, there is no overload of << for inserting std::nullptr_t into a stream. You would have to cast nullptr to the appropriate pointer type to make it work.