convert 'std::initializer_list<int>' to 'int'

Question

Why I can not use variable assigned using "initializer_list" as "normal" variable?

code:

void stovr(int a){}
int main() {

   auto v {5}; // v is std::initializer_list<int>
   stovr(v);  // cannot convert 'std::initializer_list<int>' to 'int'

}

• Why there is not implicit conversation? (edit: becausev is list )) )
• Why v is list and is not int?

Answer 1

std::initializer_list<T> cannot convert to T for the same reason that T[] cannot convert to T, and vector<T> cannot convert to T: if you merely know that you have a std::initializer_list<T>, you don't know how many elements it has.

std::initializer_list<int> x = { 1, 2, 3 }; is perfectly valid. If there were an implicit conversion from std::initializer_list<int> to int, which of the values would you expect to see?