Question

I have a function A(), that returns a pointer to an object. In function B() I try to change a member of that object in the following way:

void B() {     ObjType o = *getObj();     o.set('abc'); } 

Object o is stored in an array, and when I print the value of the member, it seems nothing happened, and the member still has the old value;

The solution is quite simple:

void B() {     ObjType * o = getObj();     o->set('abc'); } 

This does work. But to me, this is quite the same as the first sample. Can anyone explain this?

Answer 1

The following line is most likely copying the object:

ObjType o = *getObj(); 

That’s why nothing happens. If you don’t want to use a pointer as shown in your second snippet, you can use a reference like this:

ObjType& o = *getObj(); o.set('abc');