Re: Passing References: Is this correct and according to standard?

From:
"Alf P. Steinbach" <alfps@start.no>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:10:45 +0200
Message-ID:
<C8SdnbwBrOBqC-vVnZ2dnUVZ_sDinZ2d@posted.comnet>
* Akshay Loke:

I have this function from a class MFnDagNode,
    addChild( MObject & child, unsigned int index = kNextPos, bool
keepExistingParents = false );
which takes an object reference as first input parameter (ignore the
rest since those are default)

now in another class, I have:

MFnDagNode parent;
parent.addChild(node.object());
    Where node is MfnDependencyNode&
    And node.object() returns MObject

This gives me error
?error: no matching function for call to
?MfnDagNode::addChild(Mobject)?
    Note: candidates are: Mstatus MFnDagNode::addChild(MObject&, unsigned
int, bool)

Now I am not sure why this doesn?t work and the object doesn?t get
implicitly cast to the MObject& reference argument, but I am assuming
that could be because the node.object() returns a temporary const
object and it cannot be cast to a MObject& reference?


Probably it doesn't return a temporary const object. Probably it returns an
object. Which is not const but is an rvalue.

So this is the way I have done this?

const MObject& nodeObjectConstRef = node.object();
MObject& nodeObjectRef = const_cast<MObject&> (nodeObjectConstRef);
parent.addChild(nodeObjectRef);

and This works!


Assuming node.object() returns by value, it's formally UB.

Why don't you do

   MObject nodeObject = node.object();
   parent.addChild( nodeObject );

?

But also, if this is a graph chances are you need to allocate the objects
dynamically, not as automatic objects.

Initially I tried this,
MObject& nodeObjectConstRef = node.object();
parent.addChild(nodeObjectConstRef );

but that didn?t work ? it gives the error,
    ?error: invalid initialization of non-const reference of type
?MObject&? from a temporary of type ?MObject??

The first method above is working, but am not sure if I am suppressing
something using the const_cast?


You're suppressing readability and grokkability. But most of all your own
understanding.

Cheers, & hth.,

- Alf

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