Re: Can anybody tell me the reason

From:
"Thomas J. Gritzan" <Phygon_ANTISPAM@gmx.de>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:19:06 +0200
Message-ID:
<e8ghol$n3r$1@newsreader2.netcologne.de>
Ashu schrieb:

Geo wrote:

Ashu wrote:

can anybody tell me the reason why following code is not working?

int *funct()
{
int p=10;
return &p;
}

int *ptr;
funct() = ptr; //------->Giving Compile time error
(LValue)

[...]

Boss I think u need to study some book nd for kind information of u
all, u can assign like this

func() = ptr


If func() returns an Lvalue, you can do that.

However, a pointer by itself is an rvalue, just like an int:

int getInt() { return ... }
int* getPointer() { return ... }

int i;

getInt() = 10; // won't work
getPointer() = &i; // won't work

But a pointer can be used to form an lvalue. By dereferencing the
pointer, you get an lvalue for the pointee:

*getPointer() = 10; // works (or better: compiles)

But!! the function above is dangerous:

int *funct()
{
int p=10;
return &p;
}


This will return a pointer to a local variable, which lifetime ends by
leaving the function. If you dereference the pointer, you invoke
undefined behaviour.

You can return a pointer to a static variable, which is often used for
singletons (but I would return a reference):

class Singleton;

Singleton* getSingleton()
{
   static Singleton instance;
   return &instance;
}

--
Thomas

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