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I would appreciate some input if you don't mind. Can someone please explain to me why converting a base class pointer to a derived class pointer is considered dangerous by the compiler.

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>Can someone please explain to me why converting a base class pointer to a
>derived class pointer is considered dangerous by the compiler.
It's not "dangerous" as you say, but it does go against the rules of implicit conversions, so conversion without a cast is illegal, and most of the time such a conversion represents a design flaw, so downcasting is discouraged.

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