Why use !! when converting int to bool?

c++ integer boolean
sharptooth picture sharptooth · Aug 21, 2009 · Viewed 47.3k times · Source

What can be a reason for converting an integer to a boolean in this way?

bool booleanValue = !!integerValue;

instead of just

bool booleanValue = integerValue;

All I know is that in VC++7 the latter will cause C4800 warning and the former will not. Is there any other difference between the two?

Answer

user143506 picture user143506 · Aug 21, 2009

The problems with the "!!" idiom are that it's terse, hard to see, easy to mistake for a typo, easy to drop one of the "!'s", and so forth. I put it in the "look how cute we can be with C/C++" category.

Just write bool isNonZero = (integerValue != 0); ... be clear.

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