Introducing SAS/C Software, Release 6.50

C++ Translator Changes

The following enhancements to the SAS/C C++ Development System have been implemented for Release 6.50:

Templates allow you to define a generic family of types or functions by creating parameterized types. Templates are particularly useful for providing general container types such as stacks, lists, and vectors. Class templates are used to create a family of classes. Function templates are used to create an unbounded set of overloaded functions.
Run-Time Type Identification (RTTI) allows the actual run-time type of an object to be determined. The typeid operator is used to identify types and access type information. The dynamic_cast operator allows you to perform a cast with run-time type checking. An important aspect of the dynamic_cast operator is the ability to implement casts from a virtual base class to a derived class, which is impossible with other cast operators.
Three new ANSI C++ cast operators offer improved type checking over the old style cast operator. The static_cast operator is primarily used for conversions such as casting from a base pointer to a derived pointer. The reinterpret_cast operator is used for typical implementation-dependent conversions such as pointer to unrelated pointer, integral type to pointer type, and pointer type to integral type. The const_cast operator is used to change the const and volatile qualifiers on pointers or references. Any old style cast can be expressed as a combination of these new casts.