I am referring to the C++23 Standard Draft N4950.
 
 
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Вторник, 18 февраля 2025, 0:16 +03:00 от Andrey Semashev via Std-Discussion <std-discussion@lists.isocpp.org>:
 
On 2/17/25 23:09, Vladimir Grigoriev via Std-Discussion wrote:
> In p. 5 of the section 6.2 Declarations and definitions of the C++23
> Standard there is written
>  
> 5 In the definition of an object, the type of that object shall not be
> an incomplete type (6.8), an abstract class type (11.7.4), or a
> (possibly multi-dimensional) array thereof
>  
> Also in p.5 of the sub-section 6.8.1 General of the section 6.8 Types
> there is written
>  
> ...The type of a pointer to array of unknown bound, or of a type defined
> by a typedef declaration to be an array of unknown bound, cannot be
> completed.
>  
> And further there is followed an example (Example 3)
>  
>     class X;             // X is an incomplete type
>     extern X* xp;         // xp is a pointer to an incomplete type
>     extern int arr[];         // the type of arr is incomplete
>     typedef int UNKA[];     // UNKA is an incomplete type
>     UNKA* arrp;         // arrp is a pointer to an incomplete type
>     UNKA** arrpp;
>  
> But according to the first provided quote this object definition
>  
>     UNKA* arrp;         // arrp is a pointer to an incomplete type
>  
> is invalid because such a pointer has an incomplete type.
>  
> So it looks like the example does not make sense or do I have missed
> something?

I'm not sure which version of the standard you're reading, but the
current wording is different. I'm guessing you're referring to Note 2 in
paragraph 6:

http://eel.is/c++draft/basic.types.general#6

<quote>
The type of a pointer or reference to array of unknown bound permanently
points to or refers to an incomplete type.
An array of unknown bound named by a typedef declaration permanently
refers to an incomplete type.
In either case, the array type cannot be completed.
</quote>

Note the text refers to the *array* type, not the *pointer* type. The
pointer type itself is always complete, even if the pointee type is
incomplete.

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