assert as a friend class

Question

I can not declare neither assert class, nor assert function as a friendly to my class.

Am I right with such a declaration?

class Baka
{
private:
friend assert;          //invalid friend declaration
friend void assert();   //expected an identifer
public:
}

I've already googled a lot, but I can't find right arguments for assert() and the real name of the "assert" class( I will appreciate any help.

I assume you mean [`assert` from the `` header](http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/error/assert)? Then no you can't declare it as a friend because it's not a function it's *preprocessor macro*. — Some programmer dude, Mar 09 '15 at 09:36
There is no `assert` class, and the `assert` macro doesn't need to be a friend. Why do you think you need to do this? — Jonathan Wakely, Mar 09 '15 at 12:27

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 09 '15 at 10:00

3

assert isn't a function, it's a macro. Therefore if you have <cassert> included upstream it will be expanded by the pre-processor before compilation

// cassert file
// Not debug version
#define assert(_Expression)     ((void)0)

So your class actually says

class Baka
{
private:
  friend ((void)0);          //invalid friend declaration
  friend void ((void)0)();   //expected an identifer
public:
}

Which obviously shouldn't compile.

answered Mar 09 '15 at 10:00

Motti

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And it's certainly not a class. – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 09 '15 at 10:02

assert as a friend class

1 Answers1