I just read an article on the C++0x standard: http://www.softwarequalityconnection.com/2011/06/the-biggest-changes-in-c11-and-why-you-should-care/
It said nullptr was strongly typed, meaning that it can be distinguished from an integer 0.
f(int);
f(char* p);
f(nullptr); // calls char* version
That's all good, but I'm interesting in knowing what the standard says about nullptr with two pointer functions:
f(char* p);
f(int* p);
f(nullptr);
Do I need a cast here? And is nullptr templated?
f((int*)(nullptr);
f(static_cast<int*>(nullptr));
f(nullptr<int>); // I would prefer this
I haven't read the actual spec on this one, but I'm pretty sure that the call you indicated would be ambiguous without a cast, since a null pointer can be converted to a pointer of any type. So the cast should be necessary.
And no, unfortunately, nullptr is not a template. I really like that idea, though, so you could consider writing a function like this one:
template <typename PtrType> PtrType null() {
return static_cast<PtrType>(nullptr);
}
And then you could write
f(null<int*>());