Re: Life time of an object and Reference Var
maverick wrote:
Hi,
Pls consider the following code:
class Foo
{
};
Foo& getFoo ( void )
{
Foo obj;
assuming you meant to add
return obj; // NOTE: BUG
as the last line of this function.
}
int main ( void )
(Style note: most C++ "natives" don't use the C-style of
writing void to denote an empty argument list: int main()
means the same thing in C++. I have, however, seen house
styles which require the explicit "void" marker.)
{
Foo &ref = g();
}
My question is if the obj will be live untill ref? because reference
variables must be initialised when declared and g() cannot return a
'dead' object. Is a logical bug as not to return reference of local
object or no problem at all.
Returning a reference to a local variable is a bug.
The object will be destroyed when the function exits
(or leaves the scope of that local variable), and
so you have a dangling reference.
-- James
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