std::addressof

 

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

 

Utilities library

Language support Type support (basic types, RTTI) Library feature-test macros (C++20) Dynamic memory management Program utilities Coroutine support (C++20) Variadic functions is_constant_evaluated (C++20) is_within_lifetime (C++26) initializer_list (C++11) source_location (C++20) Three-way comparison three_way_comparablethree_way_comparable_with (C++20)(C++20) strong_ordering (C++20) weak_ordering (C++20) partial_ordering (C++20) common_comparison_category (C++20) compare_three_way_result (C++20) compare_three_way (C++20) strong_order (C++20) weak_order (C++20) partial_order (C++20) compare_strong_order_fallback (C++20) compare_weak_order_fallback (C++20) compare_partial_order_fallback (C++20)   is_eqis_ltis_lteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)   is_neqis_gtis_gteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

General utilities Date and time Function objects Formatting library (C++20)   bitset hash (C++11) Relational operators (deprecated in C++20) rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator>    rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>= Integer comparison functions cmp_equalcmp_lesscmp_less_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)   cmp_not_equalcmp_greatercmp_greater_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20) in_range (C++20) Swap and type operations swap ranges::swap (C++20) exchange (C++14) declval (C++11) to_underlying (C++23) forward (C++11) forward_like (C++23) move (C++11) move_if_noexcept (C++11) as_const (C++17) Common vocabulary types pair tuple (C++11) optional (C++17) any (C++17) variant (C++17) tuple_size (C++11) tuple_element (C++11) apply (C++17) make_from_tuple (C++17) expected (C++23) Elementary string conversions to_chars (C++17) from_chars (C++17) chars_format (C++17) to_chars_result (C++17) from_chars_result (C++17)

 

Dynamic memory management

Uninitialized memory algorithms uninitialized_copy uninitialized_fill uninitialized_move (C++17) uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) destroy (C++17) destroy_at (C++17) voidify (C++20) uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_fill_n uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17) destroy_n (C++17) construct_at (C++20) Constrained uninitialized memory algorithms ranges::uninitialized_copy (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_fill (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_move (C++20) ranges::construct_at (C++20) ranges::destroy (C++20) ranges::destroy_n (C++20) ranges::destroy_at (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_copy_n (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_fill_n (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_move_n (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_default_construct (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_value_construct (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++20)   ranges::uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++20) Allocators allocator allocator_traits (C++11) allocation_result (C++23) allocator_arg (C++11) uses_allocator (C++11) uses_allocator_construction_args (C++20) make_obj_using_allocator (C++20) uninitialized_construct_using_allocator (C++20) scoped_allocator_adaptor (C++11) pmr::polymorphic_allocator (C++17) Memory resources pmr::memory_resource (C++17) pmr::get_default_resource (C++17) pmr::set_default_resource (C++17) pmr::new_delete_resource (C++17) pmr::null_memory_resource (C++17) pmr::synchronized_pool_resource (C++17) pmr::unsynchronized_pool_resource (C++17)   pmr::monotonic_buffer_resource (C++17) pmr::pool_options (C++17) Garbage collection support declare_reachable (C++11)(until C++23) undeclare_reachable (C++11)(until C++23) declare_no_pointers (C++11)(until C++23) undeclare_no_pointers (C++11)(until C++23) pointer_safety (C++11)(until C++23) get_pointer_safety (C++11)(until C++23) Uninitialized storage raw_storage_iterator (until C++20*) get_temporary_buffer (until C++20*) return_temporary_buffer (until C++20*) Explicit lifetime management start_lifetime_asstart_lifetime_as_array (C++23)(C++23)

Smart pointers unique_ptr (C++11) shared_ptr (C++11) weak_ptr (C++11) auto_ptr (until C++17*) owner_less (C++11) owner_less<void> (C++17) owner_hash (C++26) owner_equal (C++26) enable_shared_from_this (C++11) bad_weak_ptr (C++11) default_delete (C++11) out_ptr_t (C++23) inout_ptr_t (C++23) Low level memory management operator new operator new[] operator delete operator delete[] get_new_handler (C++11) set_new_handler launder (C++17) bad_alloc bad_array_new_length (C++11) nothrow_t align_val_t (C++17) destroying_delete_t (C++20) new_handler nothrow Miscellaneous pointer_traits (C++11) to_address (C++20) addressof (C++11) align (C++11) assume_aligned (C++20) C Library malloc calloc realloc    aligned_alloc (C++17) free

 

Defined in header <memory>
	(1)
template< class T > T* addressof( T& arg ) noexcept;			(since C++11) (until C++17)
template< class T > constexpr T* addressof( T& arg ) noexcept;			(since C++17)
template <class T> const T* addressof( const T&& ) = delete;		(2)	(since C++17)

1) Obtains the actual address of the object or function arg, even in presence of overloaded operator&.

2) Rvalue overload is deleted to prevent taking the address of const rvalues.

The expression std::addressof(E) is a constant subexpression, if E is an lvalue constant subexpression.

(since C++17)

Parameters

arg

-

lvalue object or function

Return value

Pointer to arg.

Possible implementation

The implementation below requires compiler support.

template<typename T> [[nodiscard]] constexpr T* addressof(T& r) noexcept { return __builtin_addressof(r);//Must rely on compiler magic to perform the job }   template<typename T> T const* addressof(T const&&) = delete;

Notes

Feature-test macro	Value	Std	Feature
__cpp_lib_addressof_constexpr

Here is a serious defect in current C++ standard (including C++20 and C++23), std::addressof relies on compiler magic. However, std::addressof is not freestanding, which means it is impossible to get the memory address of an object in the entire C++ language in a portable way.[1]

Example

operator& may be overloaded for a pointer wrapper class to obtain a pointer to pointer:

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <memory>
 
template<class T>
struct Ptr {
    T* pad; // add pad to show difference between 'this' and 'data'
    T* data;
    Ptr(T* arg) : pad(nullptr), data(arg) 
    {
        std::cout << "Ctor this = " << this << std::endl;
    }
 
    ~Ptr() { delete data; }
    T** operator&() { return &data; }
};
 
template<class T>
void f(Ptr<T>* p) 
{
    std::cout << "Ptr   overload called with p = " << p << '\n';
}
 
void f(int** p) 
{
    std::cout << "int** overload called with p = " << p << '\n';
}
 
int main() 
{
    Ptr<int> p(new int(42));
    f(&p);                 // calls int** overload
    f(std::addressof(p));  // calls Ptr<int>* overload, (= this)
}

Possible output:

Ctor this = 0x7fff59ae6e88
int** overload called with p = 0x7fff59ae6e90
Ptr   overload called with p = 0x7fff59ae6e88

See also

allocator	the default allocator (class template)
pointer_to [static]	obtains a dereferenceable pointer to its argument (public static member function of std::pointer_traits<Ptr>)