Re: why creating pointer to reference member is illegal?
blargg wrote:
Now that the wrong question is out of the way, perhaps we can now
address your question of why one can't take a pointer to MEMBER
(not object) where the member is a reference. Just as a refresher,
this takes a pointer to member for a NON-reference type:
typedef int T; // why doesn't this work if changed to int&?
struct X { T i; };
void example( X& x )
{
T X::*mptr = &X::i; // get pointer to member
x.*mptr = 123; // now dereference it on an object
}
Why can't we do the same thing when i is of type int&?
Because you cannot take the address of a reference. Ordinarily you
would get the address of the object referred to, but a class'
reference member in isolation doesn't refer to anything.
You are trying to get the location in the phonebook for an unlisted
number.
Bo Persson
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