Why can't nullptr convert to int?

Question

Summary: nullptr converts to bool, and bool converts to int, so why doesn\'t nullptr convert to int

Answer 1

Because it is exactly the main idea of nullptr.

nullptr was meant to avoid this behavior:

struct myclass {};

void f(myclass* a) { std::cout << "myclass\n"; }
void f(int a) { std::cout << "int\n"; }

// ...

f(NULL); // calls void f(int)

If nullptr were convertible to int this behavior would occur.

So the question is "why is it convertible to bool?".

Syntax-"suggarness":

int* a = nullptr;
if (a) {
}

Which looks way better than:

if (a == nullptr) {
}