On 23 Apr, 14:30, desktop <f...@sss.com> wrote:
I am trying to understand the following template:
template <typename T>
inline T const& max (T const& a, T const& b) {
return a < b ? b : a;
}
does it say that the function max returns a constant reference to T of
any type?
It returns a const reference of type T, yes.
I have never seen a function returning references before, does it mean
that it returns the address of the value returned?
No, pointers are not references, a reference can be seen as an alias
for a variable, so the following is true for references but not for
pointers:
int i = 1;
int& j = i; // j is a reference to i
if (&i == &j)
// Always true
So you can see that if you take the address of a reference to an
object you get the address of the object while if you take the address
of a pointer to a object you get that pointer's address.
Another example:
void foo(int& i) {
++i;
}
int k = 1;
foo(k);
Now, in the function foo(), the i we are changing is the same integer
as k, so it's another name but the same variable.
--
Erik Wikstr?m