Why does it compile and in general how does the place in the code work and what, was it possible (QSharedPointer)?

Question

Qt

Good afternoon!
There is a code:

.....
typedef QSharedPointer<QDataStream> AnswerData;
.....
Executor::AnswerData Executor::sendSync(int timeout)
{
    if ( !_serial->isConnected() ) return false;
    .......
}
.......
double Heating::getCurrentTemp()
{
    ......
    Executor::AnswerData data = _executer->sendSync();
    ......
    if (!data)  return -1;
    ......
}

As you can see, the sendSync function should return a QSharedPointer, but in case of an error it returns false,
but in getCurrentTemp the result is checked for false and exits if something happens.
And most importantly, it works (seemingly).
I did not find in the QSharedPointer documentation why it could be done this way? Is it possible at all (will there be any "surprises")?
PS Compiler MinGW, Qt 5.10.0

Answer 1

It's not really clear why you do this. Try a clean example like:

QSharedPointer<QDataStream> doFoo()
{
    return false;
}

Perhaps you have something wrong with the flags, or the environment, or the compiler, or the version of Qt. The point is that QSharedPointer does not have such a constructor. I'll make an assumption that you have MSVC instead of a compiler :)
I advise you to return some DefaultAnswer or just nullptr.
Roman , those links that you provided are not relevant. They are about type casting to bool, but not vice versa.