When to use reinterpret_cast?

The C++ standard guarantees the following:

static_casting a pointer to and from void* preserves the address. That is, in the following, a, b and c all point to the same address:

int* a = new int();
void* b = static_cast<void*>(a);
int* c = static_cast<int*>(b);

reinterpret_cast only guarantees that if you cast a pointer to a different type, and then reinterpret_cast it back to the original type, you get the original value. So in the following:

int* a = new int();
void* b = reinterpret_cast<void*>(a);
int* c = reinterpret_cast<int*>(b);

a and c contain the same value, but the value of b is unspecified. (in practice it will typically contain the same address as a and c, but that's not specified in the standard, and it may not be true on machines with more complex memory systems.)

For casting to and from void*, static_cast should be preferred.

One case when reinterpret_cast is necessary is when interfacing with opaque data types. This occurs frequently in vendor APIs over which the programmer has no control. Here's a contrived example where a vendor provides an API for storing and retrieving arbitrary global data:

// vendor.hpp
typedef struct _Opaque * VendorGlobalUserData;
void VendorSetUserData(VendorGlobalUserData p);
VendorGlobalUserData VendorGetUserData();

To use this API, the programmer must cast their data to VendorGlobalUserData and back again. static_cast won't work, one must use reinterpret_cast:

// main.cpp
#include "vendor.hpp"
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

struct MyUserData {
    MyUserData() : m(42) {}
    int m;
};

int main() {
    MyUserData u;

        // store global data
    VendorGlobalUserData d1;
//  d1 = &u;                                          // compile error
//  d1 = static_cast<VendorGlobalUserData>(&u);       // compile error
    d1 = reinterpret_cast<VendorGlobalUserData>(&u);  // ok
    VendorSetUserData(d1);

        // do other stuff...

        // retrieve global data
    VendorGlobalUserData d2 = VendorGetUserData();
    MyUserData * p = 0;
//  p = d2;                                           // compile error
//  p = static_cast<MyUserData *>(d2);                // compile error
    p = reinterpret_cast<MyUserData *>(d2);           // ok

    if (p) { cout << p->m << endl; }
    return 0;
}

Below is a contrived implementation of the sample API:

// vendor.cpp
static VendorGlobalUserData g = 0;
void VendorSetUserData(VendorGlobalUserData p) { g = p; }
VendorGlobalUserData VendorGetUserData() { return g; }

The meaning of reinterpret_cast is not defined by the C++ standard. Hence, in theory a reinterpret_cast could crash your program. In practice compilers try to do what you expect, which is to interpret the bits of what you are passing in as if they were the type you are casting to. If you know what the compilers you are going to use do with reinterpret_cast you can use it, but to say that it is portable would be lying.

For the case you describe, and pretty much any case where you might consider reinterpret_cast, you can use static_cast or some other alternative instead. Among other things the standard has this to say about what you can expect of static_cast (§5.2.9):

An rvalue of type “pointer to cv void” can be explicitly converted to a pointer to object type. A value of type pointer to object converted to “pointer to cv void” and back to the original pointer type will have its original value.

So for your use case, it seems fairly clear that the standardization committee intended for you to use static_cast.

Here is a variant of Avi Ginsburg's program which clearly illustrates the property of reinterpret_cast mentioned by Chris Luengo, flodin, and cmdLP: that the compiler treats the pointed-to memory location as if it were an object of the new type:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <iomanip>
using namespace std;

class A
{
public:
    int i;
};

class B : public A
{
public:
    virtual void f() {}
};

int main()
{
    string s;
    B b;
    b.i = 0;
    A* as = static_cast<A*>(&b);
    A* ar = reinterpret_cast<A*>(&b);
    B* c = reinterpret_cast<B*>(ar);
    
    cout << "as->i = " << hex << setfill('0')  << as->i << "\n";
    cout << "ar->i = " << ar->i << "\n";
    cout << "b.i   = " << b.i << "\n";
    cout << "c->i  = " << c->i << "\n";
    cout << "\n";
    cout << "&(as->i) = " << &(as->i) << "\n";
    cout << "&(ar->i) = " << &(ar->i) << "\n";
    cout << "&(b.i) = " << &(b.i) << "\n";
    cout << "&(c->i) = " << &(c->i) << "\n";
    cout << "\n";
    cout << "&b = " << &b << "\n";
    cout << "as = " << as << "\n";
    cout << "ar = " << ar << "\n";
    cout << "c  = " << c  << "\n";
    
    cout << "Press ENTER to exit.\n";
    getline(cin,s);
}

Which results in output like this:

as->i = 0
ar->i = 50ee64
b.i   = 0
c->i  = 0

&(as->i) = 00EFF978
&(ar->i) = 00EFF974
&(b.i)   = 00EFF978
&(c->i)  = 00EFF978

&b = 00EFF974
as = 00EFF978
ar = 00EFF974
c  = 00EFF974
Press ENTER to exit.

It can be seen that the B object is built in memory as B-specific data first, followed by the embedded A object. The static_cast correctly returns the address of the embedded A object, and the pointer created by static_cast correctly gives the value of the data field. The pointer generated by reinterpret_cast treats b's memory location as if it were a plain A object, and so when the pointer tries to get the data field it returns some B-specific data as if it were the contents of this field.

One use of reinterpret_cast is to convert a pointer to an unsigned integer (when pointers and unsigned integers are the same size):

int i; unsigned int u = reinterpret_cast<unsigned int>(&i);

Read the FAQ! Holding C++ data in C can be risky.

In C++, a pointer to an object can be converted to void * without any casts. But it's not true the other way round. You'd need a static_cast to get the original pointer back.