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### 292. effects of a.copyfmt (a)

Section: 29.5.4.3 [basic.ios.members] Status: CD1 Submitter: Martin Sebor Opened: 2001-01-05 Last modified: 2016-01-28

Priority: Not Prioritized

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Discussion:

The Effects clause of the member function `copyfmt()` in 27.4.4.2, p15 doesn't consider the case where the left-hand side argument is identical to the argument on the right-hand side, that is `(this == &rhs)`. If the two arguments are identical there is no need to copy any of the data members or call any callbacks registered with `register_callback()`. Also, as Howard Hinnant points out in message c++std-lib-8149 it appears to be incorrect to allow the object to fire `erase_event` followed by `copyfmt_event` since the callback handling the latter event may inadvertently attempt to access memory freed by the former.

Proposed resolution:

Change the Effects clause in 27.4.4.2, p15 from

> -15- Effects:Assigns to the member objects of `*this` the corresponding member objects of `rhs`, except that...

to

> -15- Effects:If `(this == &rhs)` does nothing. Otherwise assigns to the member objects of `*this` the corresponding member objects of `rhs`, except that...