Re: References: I need a quick bit of help.

From:
 James Kanze <james.kanze@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:52:20 -0000
Message-ID:
<1192564340.215023.293260@k35g2000prh.googlegroups.com>
On Oct 16, 6:47 pm, "Victor Bazarov" <v.Abaza...@comAcast.net> wrote:

xkenneth wrote:


    [...]

binNode.h
----------------

#ifndef BINNODE_H
#define BINNODE_H

class binNode
{ public:
[...]
float& data;
};

#endif
-------------------


    [...]

Once you do, rethink your decision to store references in your nodes.
References are very delicate things, they cannot be "re-seated" to refer
to a different object.


Especially, in this case, a float& has absolutely no advantage
over a simple float.

Once initialised, they refer to the same object as long as
they live; assigning to a reference changes the object to
which the reference refers.


I suspect that in this case, he could get by with a float
const&. But frankly, using anything but a simple float seems
very, very wrong.

--
James Kanze (GABI Software) email:james.kanze@gmail.com
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