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    CWG Issue 2823</TITLE>
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<P><EM>This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21
  Core Issues List revision 118b.
  See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official
  list.</EM></P>
<P>2025-09-28</P>
<HR>
<A NAME="2823"></A><H4>2823.
  
Implicit undefined behavior when dereferencing pointers
</H4>
<B>Section: </B>7.6.2.2&#160; [<A href="https://wg21.link/expr.unary.op">expr.unary.op</A>]
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

 <B>Status: </B>CD7
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

 <B>Submitter: </B>CWG
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

 <B>Date: </B>2023-11-06<BR>


<P>[Accepted as a DR at the November, 2023 meeting.]</P>

<P>Subclause 7.6.2.2 [<A href="https://wg21.link/expr.unary.op#1">expr.unary.op</A>] paragraph 1 specifies:</P>

<BLOCKQUOTE>

The unary * operator performs indirection. Its operand shall be a
prvalue of type &#8220;pointer to T&#8221;, where T is an object or
function type. The operator yields an lvalue of type T denoting the
object or function to which the operand points.

</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>It is unclear what happens if the operand does not point to an
object or function.</P>

<P><B>Proposed resolution (approved by CWG 2023-11-08):</B></P>

<P>Change in 7.6.2.2 [<A href="https://wg21.link/expr.unary.op#1">expr.unary.op</A>] paragraph 1 as follows:</P>

<BLOCKQUOTE>

The unary * operator performs indirection. Its operand shall be a
prvalue of type &#8220;pointer to T&#8221;, where T is an object or
function type. The operator yields an lvalue of type T <DEL>denoting
the object or function to which the operand points</DEL>. <INS>If the
operand points to an object or function, the result denotes that
object or function; otherwise, the behavior is undefined except as
specified in 7.6.1.8 [<A href="https://wg21.link/expr.typeid">expr.typeid</A>].</INS>

</BLOCKQUOTE>

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