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diff --git a/c++.html.markdown b/c++.html.markdown index 883d3482..e45c73c3 100644 --- a/c++.html.markdown +++ b/c++.html.markdown @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ filename: learncpp.cpp contributors: - ["Steven Basart", "http://github.com/xksteven"] - ["Matt Kline", "https://github.com/mrkline"] + - ["Geoff Liu", "http://geoffliu.me"] lang: en --- @@ -249,6 +250,56 @@ const string& barRef = bar; // Create a const reference to bar. // Like C, const values (and pointers and references) cannot be modified. barRef += ". Hi!"; // Error, const references cannot be modified. +// Sidetrack: Before we talk more about references, we must introduce a concept +// called a temporary object. Suppose we have the following code: +string tempObjectFun() { ... } +string retVal = tempObjectFun(); + +// What happens in the second line is actually: +// - a string object is returned from `tempObjectFun` +// - a new string is constructed with the returned object as arugment to the +// constructor +// - the returned object is destroyed +// The returned object is called a temporary object. Temporary objects are +// created whenever a function returns an object, and they are destroyed at the +// end of the evaluation of the enclosing expression. So in this code: +foo(bar(tempObjectFun())) + +// assuming `foo` and `bar` exist, the object returned from `tempObjectFun` is +// passed to `bar`, and it is destroyed before `foo` is called. + +// Now back to references. The exception to the "at the end of the enclosing +// expression" rule is if a temporary object is bound to a const reference, in +// which case its life gets extended to the current scope: + +void constReferenceTempObjectFun() { + // `constRef` gets the temporary object, and it is valid until the end of this + // function. + const string& constRef = tempObjectFun(); + ... +} + +// Another kind of reference introduced in C++11 is specifically for temporary +// objects. You cannot have a variable of its type, but it takes precedence in +// overload resolution: + +void someFun(string& s) { ... } // Regular reference +void someFun(string&& s) { ... } // Reference to temporary object + +string foo; +someFun(foo); // Calls the version with regular reference +someFun(tempObjectFun()); // Calls the version with temporary reference + +// For example, you will see these two versions of constructors for +// std::basic_string: +basic_string(const basic_string& other); +basic_string(basic_string&& other); + +// Idea being if we are constructing a new string from a temporary object (which +// is going to be destroyed soon anyway), we can have a more efficient +// constructor that "salvages" parts of that temporary string. You will see this +// concept referred to as the move semantic. + ////////////////////////////////////////// // Classes and object-oriented programming ////////////////////////////////////////// |