dynamic cast and static cast in C

Question

 I'm perplexed by the dynamic cast keyword in C++.

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

void f () {
    A a;
    B b;

    A* ap = &b;
    B* b1 = dynamic_cast<B*> (&a);  // NULL, because 'a' is not a 'B'
    B* b2 = dynamic_cast<B*> (ap);  // 'b'
    C* c = dynamic_cast<C*> (ap);   // NULL.

    A& ar = dynamic_cast<A&> (*ap); // Ok.
    B& br = dynamic_cast<B&> (*ap); // Ok.
    C& cr = dynamic_cast<C&> (*ap); // std::bad_cast
}

Answer 1

More than C code, I believe an English definition would suffice:

If given a Base class and a Derived class, dynamic cast will convert a Base pointer to a Derived pointer if and only if the actual object pointed at is a Derived object.

class Base { virtual ~Base() {} };
class Derived : public Base {};
class Derived2 : public Base {};
class ReDerived : public Derived {};

void test( Base & base )
{
   dynamic_cast<Derived&>(base);
}

int main() {
   Base b;
   Derived d;
   Derived2 d2;
   ReDerived rd;

   test( b );   // throw: b is not a Derived object
   test( d );   // ok
   test( d2 );  // throw: d2 is not a Derived object
   test( rd );  // ok: rd is a ReDerived, and thus a derived object
}

The call to test in the example binds several objects to a reference to Base. 

Internally, the reference is typesafely downcast to a reference to Derived: the downcast will succeed only if the referred object is an instance of Derived.