Question

I am creating a class diagram for a class that has many definitions similar to this one inside of its header file.

  1       2                                        3             4       5
const std::pair<Controller<_Tp,_Val>*, _Val>& getHighestBidder(_Tp obj) const;

I know what several of them do,

2) says that this method will return a std::pair<Controller<_Tp, _Val>*, _Val>
3) gives the name of the function
4) defines the type of object this function accepts as a parameter

But, what do 1 and 5 mean?

Any help/pointers would be great.
Thanks

Answer 1

Firstly, note that it’s not returning a std::pair<Controller<_Tp, _Val>*, _Val>, it’s returning a std::pair<Controller<_Tp, _Val>*, _Val> &, i.e. a reference to such an object that already exists.

(1) denotes that it’s a const reference to an object; you cannot modify the object through this reference.

(5) denotes that this is a const member function, i.e. it doesn’t modify the object it was called on.