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<title>Chapter 11. The Conversion Library 1.7</title>
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<div><h2 class="title">
<a name="conversion"></a>Chapter 11. The Conversion Library 1.7</h2></div>
<div><div class="authorgroup">
<div class="author"><h3 class="author">
<span class="firstname">Bjarne</span> <span class="surname">Stroustrup</span>
</h3></div>
<div class="author"><h3 class="author">
<span class="firstname">Dave</span> <span class="surname">Abrahams</span>
</h3></div>
<div class="author"><h3 class="author">
<span class="firstname">Boris</span> <span class="surname">Rasin</span>
</h3></div>
<div class="author"><h3 class="author">
<span class="firstname">Antony</span> <span class="surname">Polukhin</span>
</h3></div>
</div></div>
<div><p class="copyright">Copyright © 2001 Beman Dawes</p></div>
<div><p class="copyright">Copyright © 2014-2021 Antony Polukhin</p></div>
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<a name="conversion.legal"></a><p>
Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
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<p><b>Table of Contents</b></p>
<dl class="toc">
<dt><span class="section"><a href="conversion.html#conversion.description">Description</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="conversion/polymorphic_casts.html">Polymorphic casts</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="conversion/polymorphic_casts.html#conversion.polymorphic_casts.polymorphic_downcast">polymorphic_downcast</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="conversion/polymorphic_casts.html#conversion.polymorphic_casts.polymorphic_cast">polymorphic_cast</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="conversion/polymorphic_casts.html#conversion.polymorphic_casts.polymorphic_pointer_cast">polymorphic_pointer_cast</a></span></dt>
</dl></dd>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="conversion/synopsis.html">Synopsis</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="conversion/history.html">History</a></span></dt>
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<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="conversion.description"></a><a class="link" href="conversion.html#conversion.description" title="Description">Description</a>
</h2></div></div></div>
<p>
The Conversion Library improves program safety and clarity by performing otherwise
messy conversions. It includes cast-style function templates designed to complement
the C++ Standard's built-in casts.
</p>
<p>
To reduce coupling, particularly to standard library IOStreams, the Boost Conversion
Library is supplied by several headers:
</p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">
The <a href="../../boost/polymorphic_cast.hpp" target="_top">boost/polymorphic_cast.hpp</a>
header provides <a class="link" href="conversion/polymorphic_casts.html#polymorphic_cast"><code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">polymorphic_cast</span><span class="special"><></span></code></a> and <a class="link" href="conversion/polymorphic_casts.html#polymorphic_downcast"><code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">polymorphic_downcast</span><span class="special"><></span></code></a>
to perform safe casting between polymorphic types.
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The <a href="../../boost/polymorphic_pointer_cast.hpp" target="_top">boost/polymorphic_pointer_cast.hpp</a>
header provides <a class="link" href="conversion/polymorphic_casts.html#polymorphic_pointer_cast"><code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">polymorphic_pointer_cast</span><span class="special"><></span></code></a>
and <a class="link" href="conversion/polymorphic_casts.html#polymorphic_pointer_cast"><code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">polymorphic_pointer_downcast</span><span class="special"><></span></code></a>
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The <a href="../../boost/implicit_cast.hpp" target="_top">boost/implicit_cast.hpp</a>
header provides <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">implicit_cast</span><span class="special"><></span></code> to perform implicit casts only
(no down-cast, no void*->T*, no U->T if T has only explicit constructors
for U).
</li>
<li class="listitem">
The <a href="../../boost/lexical_cast.hpp" target="_top">boost/lexical_cast.hpp</a>
header provides <a href="../../libs/lexical_cast/doc/html/index.html" target="_top"><code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">lexical_cast</span><span class="special"><></span></code></a>
general literal text conversions, such as an <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">int</span></code>
represented as a <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">string</span></code>,
or vice-versa.
</li>
</ol></div>
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