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Exact meaning of functions returning reference
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How are functions returning reference used?? Do they return values on the left side or the right side of the assignment. I would be glad if I could get some help.
Thanks,
comwizz.
Thanks,
comwizz.
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Originally Posted by comwizz
How are functions returning reference used?? Do they return values on the left side or the right side of the assignment. I would be glad if I could get some help.
Thanks,
comwizz.
http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lit...s.html#faq-8.2
Why should references be used at all?? As we could always use pointers in place of them as if we change the value of the pointer , automatically the value of variable it points to is changed eg. p=&s;*p=7;changes the value of s also. Also , would a function returning a reference be used on the right side of assignment operator ?? eg. c=max();where max returns a reference variable having similar datatype to c.Please reply.
Thanks,
comwizz.
Thanks,
comwizz.
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 15,639
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one place a reference is needed and pointers will not work is overloading the [] operator. You couldn't implement this as neatly using pointers.
And the reference can be used on both left and right side of the operators, as illustrated in main() below.
And the reference can be used on both left and right side of the operators, as illustrated in main() below.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
class matrix
{
private:
int array[10];
public:
matrix() {memset(array,0,sizeof(array));}
int& operator[](int index) {return array[index];}
};
int main()
{
matrix m;
m[0] = 1;
m[1] = 2;
int x = m[2];
cout << m[0] << endl;
cout << m[1] << endl;
return 0;
} 
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Originally Posted by comwizz
Why should references be used at all?? As we could always use pointers in place of them as if we change the value of the pointer , automatically the value of variable it points to is changed eg. p=&s;*p=7;
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