Ep 284: C++20's Safe Integer Comparisons

Summary

This episode addresses the problems that arise when comparing signed and unsigned integers in C++. Jason demonstrates how comparing a negative value like -1 to an unsigned value can lead to unexpected results due to implicit type conversion, and why solutions like static_cast are unreliable. He introduces C++20's safe integer comparison functions in the header (cmp_less, cmp_equal, etc.) which correctly handle comparisons between different integer types and are constexpr-capable, allowing the compiler to resolve these comparisons at compile time with predictable semantics.