Problem of const variable and its reference

[KABIRA16]

I am having problem with my const variable. When I create a non-constant reference to this variable, the problem arises is that the two variables have different values although the address remaining same.

#include <iostream.h>
#include <conio.h>
int main()
{
    clrscr();
    const int k = 4; 
    int& p = const_cast<int&>(k);
    p++;
    cout << "k = " << k << "\t&k = " << &k << endl
         << "p = " << p << "\t&p = " << &p << endl;
    getch();
}

Code Output:

k = 10 &k = 0xbfffca88
p = 11 &p = 0xbfffca88

Which is wrong. A single address cannot store 2 different values, if I am not wrong then. Then what is wrong in my code?

[Zecho]

I don't see any problem with your code but I am assuming that we can't reference the constant variable. May be it is not allowed. This is the reason, probably, which caused you in undefined behavior. I think you should avoid this kind of statements in your code. And by the way why you want to have 2 variables referencing to the same static value, you can even use the same variable names where that value is required.

[kelfro]

int& p = const_cast<int&>(k);

I think the problem lies over here. Basically before this statement, the compiler was assuming the value of k as 10 which is not the case. It has already be changed to 11 as per your code. So during run-time, the k is still displayed as 10 (due to compiler's confusion) and p value is changed to 11.

[void]

This is because although you have given the reference of k to p, p is still not a constant variable and so the value of p can be changed at any point of time. On the contrary, k remains constant throughout the code and so cannot be changed. That is the reason why you are getting the value of k as 10 and the value of p as 11 (which got changed in your code).