Re: Pointer Vs non-pointer member variable

On 27 Jun., ittium wrote:


That's easy: Always choose non-pointer if possible.

Note that there are few cases where you have to use pointer, for
example if the object that is pointed to is managed by a different
class:

class Application
{
public:
  void DoSomething ();
};

class SomeClass
{
private:
  Application* App_;

public:
  SomeClass (Application* App)
    : App_ (App)
  {}

  void foo ()
  {
    App_->DoSomething ();
  }
};

Here SomeClass uses a plain pointer to the Application class since
this class is created and managed by some third entity.

Another case is when the member is managed by the class itself but
cannot be created in the constructor of the class. In that scenario
you are forced to use pointers. However, you should use some smart
pointer:

class Slave
{};

class Master
{
public:
  Master ();
  void Initialize ()
  {
    Slave_ = std::auto_ptr<Slave> (new Slave ());
  }

private:
  std::auto_ptr<Slave> Slave_;
};

In this case the life-time of Slave_ will be a subset of the life-time
of Master.

Regards,
Stuart