llvm / llvm/llvm-project

[clang-tidy] bugprone-unchecked-optional-access: should const indexing operator access be considered stable?

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#174,551 4 comments 1 reaction 1 assignee View on GitHub

@dl8sd11 is already working on this.

Since Jan 6, 2026.

clang-tidy false-positive
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Description

Consider the following example:
```cpp
#include
#include

bool g(const std::array, 2>& array, const int index) {
if (array[index].has_value()) {
return *array[index] > 0;
}
return false;
}

void f() {
std::array, 2> myArray {};
myArray[0] = 10;
g(myArray, 0);
g(myArray, 1);
}
```
It generates an unsafe optional access warning:
```
:6:17: warning: unchecked access to optional value [bugprone-unchecked-optional-access]
6 | return *array[index] > 0;
| ^~~~~~~~~~~~
1 warning generated.
```
[godbolt](https://godbolt.org/z/1qd7q5P1c).

Yes, indexing operator is not included in the [list of documented exceptions](https://clang.llvm.org/extra/clang-tidy/checks/bugprone/unchecked-optional-access.html#exception-accessor-methods), and therefore this behaviour is expected. But this is a very common pattern, and so long as the const operator is used and the index passed in is unmodified (or a constant) this code is about as safe as accessors which are considered stable?

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