cv (const and volatile) type qualifiers

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Execution support library (C++26)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

C++ language

General topics
Preprocessor Comments	Keywords Escape sequences
Flow control
Conditional execution statements
if	switch
Iteration statements (loops)
for range-for (C++11)	while do-while
Jump statements
continue - break	goto - return
Functions
Function declaration
Lambda function expression
inline specifier
Dynamic exception specifications (until C++17*)
noexcept specifier (C++11)
Exceptions
throw-expression try block	handler
Namespaces
Namespace declaration	Namespace aliases
Types
Fundamental types Enumeration types Function types	Class/struct types Union types
Specifiers
const/volatile decltype (C++11) auto (C++11)	constexpr (C++11) consteval (C++20) constinit (C++20)
Storage duration specifiers
Initialization
Default-initialization Value-initialization Zero-initialization Copy-initialization Direct-initialization	Aggregate initialization List-initialization (C++11)   Constant initialization Reference initialization

Expressions
Value categories Order of evaluation	Operators Operator precedence
Alternative representations
Literals
Boolean - Integer - Floating-point
Character - String - nullptr (C++11)
User-defined (C++11)
Utilities
Attributes (C++11)
Types
typedef declaration
Type alias declaration (C++11)
Casts
Implicit conversions static_cast const_cast	Explicit conversions dynamic_cast reinterpret_cast
Memory allocation
new expression	delete expression
Classes
Class declaration Constructors this pointer	Access specifiers friend specifier
Class-specific function properties
Virtual function override specifier (C++11)   final specifier (C++11)	explicit (C++11) static
Special member functions
Default constructor Copy constructor Move constructor (C++11)	Copy assignment Move assignment (C++11) Destructor
Templates
Class template Function template	Template specialization Parameter packs (C++11)
Miscellaneous
Inline assembly	History of C++

 

Declarations

Overview Declaration syntax decl-specifier-seq Declarator Conflicting declarations Specifiers typedef inline virtual function specifier explicit function specifier friend constexpr (C++11) consteval (C++20) constinit (C++20) Storage class specifiers Translation-unit-local (C++20) class/struct union enum decltype (C++11) auto (C++11) alignas (C++11) constvolatile Pack indexing specifier (C++26)     Elaborated type specifier Attributes (C++11)

Declarators Reference Pointer Array Block declarations Simple-declaration →Structured binding declaration (C++17) Alias declaration (C++11) Namespace alias definition using declaration using directive static_assert declaration (C++11) asm declaration Opaque enum declaration (C++11) Other declarations Namespace definition Function declaration Class template declaration Function template declaration Explicit template instantiation (C++11) Explicit template specialization Linkage specification Attribute declaration (C++11) Empty declaration

 

Appear in any type specifier, including decl-specifier-seq of declaration grammar, to specify constness or volatility of the object being declared or of the type being named.

• const - defines that the type is constant.
• volatile - defines that the type is volatile.

Explanation

Any (possibly incomplete) type other than function type or reference type is a type in a group of the following four distinct but related types:

• A cv-unqualified version.
• A const-qualified version.
• A volatile-qualified version.
• A const-volatile-qualified version.

These four types in the same group have the same representation and alignment requirements.

Array types are considered to have the same cv-qualification as their element types.

const and volatile objects

When an object is first created, the cv-qualifiers used (which could be part of decl-specifier-seq or part of a declarator in a declaration, or part of type-id in a new-expression) determine the constness or volatility of the object, as follows:

• A const object is

• an object whose type is const-qualified, or
• a non-mutable subobject of a const object.

Such object cannot be modified: attempt to do so directly is a compile-time error, and attempt to do so indirectly (e.g., by modifying the const object through a reference or pointer to non-const type) results in undefined behavior.

• A volatile object is

• an object whose type is volatile-qualified,
• a subobject of a volatile object, or
• a mutable subobject of a const-volatile object.

Every access (read or write operation, member function call, etc.) made through a glvalue expression of volatile-qualified type is treated as a visible side-effect for the purposes of optimization (that is, within a single thread of execution, volatile accesses cannot be optimized out or reordered with another visible side effect that is sequenced-before or sequenced-after the volatile access. This makes volatile objects suitable for communication with a signal handler, but not with another thread of execution, see std::memory_order). Any attempt to access a volatile object through a glvalue of non-volatile type (e.g. through a reference or pointer to non-volatile type) results in undefined behavior.

• A const volatile object is

• an object whose type is const-volatile-qualified,
• a non-mutable subobject of a const volatile object,
• a const subobject of a volatile object, or
• a non-mutable volatile subobject of a const object.

Behaves as both a const object and as a volatile object.

Each cv-qualifier (const and volatile) can appear at most once in any cv-qualifier sequence. For example, const const and volatile const volatile are not valid cv-qualifier sequences.

mutable specifier

• mutable - permits modification of the class member declared mutable even if the containing object is declared const (i.e., the class member is mutable).

May appear in the declaration of a non-static class members of non-reference non-const type:

class X
{
    mutable const int* p; // OK
    mutable int* const q; // ill-formed
    mutable int&       r; // ill-formed
};

mutable is used to specify that the member does not affect the externally visible state of the class (as often used for mutexes, memo caches, lazy evaluation, and access instrumentation).

class ThreadsafeCounter
{
    mutable std::mutex m; // The "M&M rule": mutable and mutex go together
    int data = 0;
public:
    int get() const
    {
        std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lk(m);
        return data;
    }
 
    void inc()
    {
        std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lk(m);
        ++data;
    }
};

Conversions

There is partial ordering of cv-qualifiers by the order of increasing restrictions. The type can be said more or less cv-qualified than:

• unqualified < const
• unqualified < volatile
• unqualified < const volatile
• const < const volatile
• volatile < const volatile

References and pointers to cv-qualified types can be implicitly converted to references and pointers to more cv-qualified types, see qualification conversions for details.

To convert a reference or a pointer to a cv-qualified type to a reference or pointer to a less cv-qualified type, const_cast must be used.

Notes

The const qualifier used on a declaration of a non-local non-volatile non-template(since C++14)non-inline(since C++17) variable that is not declared extern gives it internal linkage. This is different from C where const file scope variables have external linkage.

The C++ language grammar treats mutable as a storage-class-specifier, rather than a type qualifier, but it does not affect storage class or linkage.

Some uses of volatile are deprecated: lvalue of volatile type as operand of built-in increment/decrement operators; lvalue of volatile type as left operand of built-in direct assignment, unless the direct assignment expression appears in an unevaluated context or is a discarded-value expression; volatile object type as function parameter type or return type; volatile qualifier in structured binding declaration.

(since C++20)

Keywords

const, volatile, mutable

Example

Run this code

#include <cstdlib>
 
int main()
{
    int n1 = 0;          // non-const object
    const int n2 = 0;    // const object
    int const n3 = 0;    // const object (same as n2)
    volatile int n4 = 0; // volatile object
 
    const struct
    {
        int n1;
        mutable int n2;
    } x = {0, 0};        // const object with mutable member
 
    n1 = 1;   // OK: modifiable object
//  n2 = 2;   // error: non-modifiable object
    n4 = 3;   // OK: treated as a side-effect
//  x.n1 = 4; // error: member of a const object is const
    x.n2 = 4; // OK: mutable member of a const object isn't const
 
    const int& r1 = n1; // reference to const bound to non-const object
//  r1 = 2; // error: attempt to modify through reference to const
    const_cast<int&>(r1) = 2; // OK: modifies non-const object n1
 
    const int& r2 = n2; // reference to const bound to const object
//  r2 = 2; // error: attempt to modify through reference to const
//  const_cast<int&>(r2) = 2; // undefined behavior: attempt to modify const object n2
 
    [](...){}(n3, n4, x, r2); // see also: [[maybe_unused]]
 
    std::system("g++ -O3 -Wa,-adhln ./main.cpp"); // may issue asm on POSIX systems
}

Possible output:

# typical machine code produced on an x86_64 platform
# (only the code that contributes to observable side-effects is emitted)
main:
    movl    $0, -4(%rsp) # volatile int n4 = 0;
    movl    $3, -4(%rsp) # n4 = 3;
    xorl    %eax, %eax   # return 0 (implicit)
    ret

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
CWG 1428	C++98	the definition of 'const object' was based on declaration	based on object type
CWG 1528	C++98	there was no requirement on the number of occurrences of each cv-qualifier in the same cv-qualifier sequence	at most once for each cv-qualifier
CWG 1799	C++98	mutable could be applied to data members not declared const, but the members' types may still be const-qualified	cannot apply mutable to data members of const-qualified types

See also

C documentation for const qualifier

C documentation for volatile qualifier