Overloaded Bool/String Ambiguity

Question

Why is C++ casting the string literal I pass in as a bool rather than a string?

#include 

using namespace std;

class A
{
    public:
              


        

Answer 1

Recently I passed this problem too, let me share another way.

You can change the bool constructor to a unsigned char. So the decay and implict conversion of string literal don't happen, and the std::string constructor takes place.

class A
{
public:
    A(string v)
    {
        cout << v;
    }

    A(unsigned char v)
    {
        cout << static_cast(v);
    }
};

int main()
{
     A("Hello"); // <- Call A(string)
     A(false);   // <- Call A(unsigned char)
}

This way you don't need to provide always overloads to std::string and const char* neither making code bloat constructing the std::string at the client call site.

I don't claim that's better, but it's simpler.