Knowledge Base

FIX: C++ Compiler Treats &array[][] as 2-D Array of References

Article ID: 115708

Article Last Modified on 7/5/2005

Microsoft C/C++ Professional Development System 7.0
Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0 Professional Edition
Microsoft Visual C++ 1.5 Professional Edition

This article was previously published under Q115708

SYMPTOMS

Attempting to call a class constructor using a reference to a two dimensional array of objects will cause the compiler to incorrectly treat the array as a two dimensional array of references. In the sample below, the following errors will be incorrectly generated:

test.cpp(6) : error C2234: arrays of references are illegal
test.cpp(6) : error C2511: '__ctor' : overloaded member function not found in 'X'

CAUSE

The compiler is interpreting

   int (&iref)[10][10];

as if it was written:

   int & iref[10][10];

It is not legal in C++ to use a pointer to a reference, so an array of references is also not legal.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the C/C++ compiler for MS-DOS, versions 7.0, 8.0, and 8.0c and the 32-bit C/C++ compiler, version 8.0. This problem was corrected in compiler version 9.0, included with Visual C++ version 2.0.

MORE INFORMATION

The following code can be used to demonstrate this problem.

Sample Code

/* Compile options needed: /c
*/ 

class X
{
    int m_arr[10][10];
public:
    X() {}
    X( int (&iref)[10][10] ) {}
};

void main()
{
}

Additional query words: 7.00 8.00 8.00c 1.00 1.50

Keywords: kbbug kbfix kbcpponly kbcompiler KB115708