Is it safe to check a pointer to not being NULL
by writing simply if(pointer)
or do I have to use if(pointer != NULL)
?
You can; the null pointer is implicitly converted into boolean false while non-null pointers are converted into true. From the C++11 standard, section on Boolean Conversions:
A prvalue of arithmetic, unscoped enumeration, pointer, or pointer to member type can be converted to a prvalue of type
bool
. A zero value, null pointer value, or null member pointer value is converted tofalse
; any other value is converted totrue
. A prvalue of typestd::nullptr_t
can be converted to a prvalue of typebool
; the resulting value isfalse
.