Question

Hi all to experts in programming C/C++ code.
I stumbled upon this code, but I’m confused what the 2 functions are returning.
Any kind souls could help me out?
I’ve tried to make the code as generic & useful to others as possible.

ClassA*& func1() {
    static ClassA* mClassA;
    return mClassA;
}

ClassA* func2() {
    ClassA*& mClassA = func1();
    if(!mClassA) {
        ... // omitted some code that fill mClassA with data.
    }
    return mClassA;
}

[edit] Also wanted to ask, do the *& in func1() and func2() cancel each other out?

Answer 1

ClassA*& func1()

returns the static pointer declared inside the method by reference. Doing:

ClassA*& x = func1()
x = NULL

would alter mClassA.

ClassA* func2()

returns a copy of the pointer. It will point to the same memory, but changing the pointer doesn’t affect mClassA.