Is const_cast safe?

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const_cast is safe only if you’re casting a variable that was originally non-const. For example, if you have a function that takes a parameter of a const char *, and you pass in a modifiable char *, it’s safe to const_cast that parameter back to a char * and modify it. However, if the original variable was in fact const, then using const_cast will result in undefined behavior.

void func(const char *param, size_t sz, bool modify)
{
    if(modify)
        strncpy(const_cast<char *>(param), sz, "new string");
    printf("param: %s\n", param);
}

...

char buffer[16];
const char *unmodifiable = "string constant";
func(buffer, sizeof(buffer), true);  // OK
func(unmodifiable, strlen(unmodifiable), false); // OK
func(unmodifiable, strlen(unmodifiable), true);  // UNDEFINED BEHAVIOR

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