Re: STL Vector - pass by reference?

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"David Wilkinson" <no-reply@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eR1GUla3HHA.4584@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Gerry Hickman wrote:
I guessed 'returns' should be a comment, but the first two lines didn't
make sense with void following vector<string>::size_type, I guess I was
supposed to _replace_ void with vector<string>::size_type, seems obvious
now.

Does this only apply to the 'pointer' version, or does it apply to the
'references' version too?

Gerry:

The "void" is Doug's post was a typo, I think. This confused me also.

When you pass a pointer, the "implication" is that it could be NULL, and
that the function will take some special action in this case. If you pass
a reference, it cannot be NULL (every reference must be initialized to
some object), so no such action need be taken.

This "every reference must be initialized to some object" is not true. Any
pointer can be converted to a reference.


Generally, in C++ references are preferred to pointers.

--
David Wilkinson
Visual C++ MVP


.

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