Base pointer to array of derived objects

If you look at the expression p[1], p is a Base* (Base is a completely-defined type) and 1 is an int, so according to ISO/IEC 14882:2003 5.2.1 [expr.sub] this expression is valid and identical to *((p)+(1)).

From 5.7 [expr.add] / 5, when an integer is added to a pointer, the result is only well defined when the pointer points to an element of an array object and the result of the pointer arithmetic also points the an element of that array object or one past the end of the array. p, however, does not point to an element of an array object, it points at the base class sub-object of a Derived object. It is the Derived object that is an array member, not the Base sub-object.

Note that under 5.7 / 4, for the purposes of the addition operator, the Base sub-object can be treated as an array of size one, so technically you can form the address p + 1, but as a "one past the last element" pointer, it doesn't point at a Base object and attempting to read from or write to it will cause undefined behavior.


(3) leads to undefined behaviour, but it is not ill-formed strictly speaking. Ill-formed means that a C++ program is not constructed according to the syntax rules, diagnosable semantic rules, and the One Definition Rule.

Same for (2), it is well-formed, but it does not do what you have probably expected. According to §8.3.4/6:

Except where it has been declared for a class (13.5.5), the subscript operator [] is interpreted in such a way that E1[E2] is identical to *((E1)+(E2)). Because of the conversion rules that apply to +, if E1 is an array and E2 an integer, then E1[E2] refers to the E2-th member of E1. Therefore, despite its asymmetric appearance, subscripting is a commutative operation.

So in (2) you will get the address which is the result of p+sizeof(Base)*1 when you probably wanted to get the address p+sizeof(Derived)*1.