return value vs return reference in C++

Asked Jun 18 '13 at 13:54

Active Jun 18 '13 at 14:22

Viewed 115 times

It seems like that returning reference is not a good practice (Is the practice of returning a C++ reference variable, evil?).

For this example, which would be better: return reference or return value?

class A
{
    B b;
public:
    B getB() {return b;} // ??? return value
    B& getB() {return b;} // ??? return reference;
};

I guess it's OK to return reference as the returned value is still in memory, but I'm not sure what normally C++ programmers do. Are there any guidelines on when to return value vs when to return reference (or pointer)?

edited May 23 '17 at 10:32

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It really depends on what you want to do: do you want the caller to refer to your class' data or not? – juanchopanza Jun 18 '13 at 13:56
If it helps any, I pretty much always return a value. – kirbyfan64sos Jun 18 '13 at 13:57
@juanchopanza: in any case, it's better not to give a mutable reference to the caller. – Matthieu M. Jun 18 '13 at 13:57
@MatthieuM. Agreed, in general, no. That is where "what you want to do" comes in. You need to have compelling reasons to do it. – juanchopanza Jun 18 '13 at 13:59
1

Have you seen http://www.learncpp.com/cpp-tutorial/74a-returning-values-by-value-reference-and-address/? – kirbyfan64sos Jun 18 '13 at 14:00
@kirbyfan64sos: they completely fail to mention the case of an object's attribute though... – Matthieu M. Jun 18 '13 at 14:17

return value vs return reference in C++

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