Question

Can someone explain me why it isn’t possible for the class TaxWay in the code to hold a member variable Bank that is initialized by a reference? What should I change in the code to make it correct?
When I change the member variable to a reference as Bank&, then it works. I thought that the same should happen with a “not reference variable”. How can it be done?

class Bank;

class TaxWay : public Way
{
  public:
    TaxSquare(int, int, Bank&);
    virtual void process();

  private:
    int taxAmount;
    Bank bank;
};

TaxWay::TaxWay(int anID, int amount, Bank& theBank) 
: Way(anID),taxAmount(amount),bank(theBank) 
{
}

I create an object as:

TaxWay TaxWay9(9,150, theBank);

Answer 1

In the example the TaxWay class cannot hold a copy of the bank, because you have not defined the Bank class. At a minimum the size of the Bank class must be known so space can be allocated.

On the other hand, depending on what the Bank contains, it might not be a good idea to copy it. Will that also copy the money in the bank? 🙂