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    CWG Issue 805</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="805"></A><H4>805.
  
Which exception to throw for overflow in array size calculation
</H4>
<B>Section: </B>7.6.2.8&#160; [<A href="https://wg21.link/expr.new">expr.new</A>]
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

 <B>Status: </B>CD2
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

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

 <B>Date: </B>3 March, 2009<BR><BR>


<A href="http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2010/n3086.html#UK72">N2800 comment
  UK&#160;72<BR></A>
<A href="http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2010/n3086.html#UK192">N2800 comment
  UK&#160;192<BR></A>

<P>[Voted into WP at July, 2009 meeting as part of N2932.]</P>

<P>Throwing <TT>std::length_error</TT> (7.6.2.8 [<A href="https://wg21.link/expr.new#7">expr.new</A>] paragraph 7)
 for an attempt to allocate a too-large array brings in
too much of the Standard library. A simpler exception, like
<TT>std::bad_alloc</TT>, should be thrown instead.</P>

<P><B>Notes from the March, 2009 meeting:</B></P>

<P>The CWG was in favor of throwing an exception derived from
<TT>std::bad_alloc</TT>.  This would be upwardly compatible; it
would be harmless for programs that currently catch
<TT>std::bad_alloc</TT>, but would allow programs to treat the
calculation overflow case separately if they wish.</P>

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