Question

I have a structure like this

struct structure
{
    BaseObject &A; //BaseObject has a function declared as virtual
};

In run time, I am dynamically assign an object to &A

structure *s = new structure;
DerivedObjectB *B = new DerivedObjectB(); //Derived class overloads the virtual function 
s->A = *B; //s is a pointer of the structure. S has been initialized 

I can compile this code but I am getting a seg-fault error in runtime.
I have a restriction that I can not use a pointer.
This is not a homework. The compiler I am using as a reverse compiler has a restriction of using pointers because of an issue in building SSA

Answer 1

If you cannot use a pointer, you must use a reference.
If you use a reference, it must be initialized to it’s final value as it’s constructed.

struct structure
{
    BaseObject &A; //BaseObject has a function declared as virtual
    structure(BaseObject &A_) : A(A_) {}
};

DerivedObjectB *B = new DerivedObjectB(); 
structure *s = new structure(*B); //done
//keep in mind you cannot delete `B` until _after_ you delete `s`

Your code above shouldn’t have compiled since a structure could not be created that way since it had no automatic default structure since it has a reference member. Also, Even if it did compile, the A member would have been a BaseObject copy of the DerivedObjectB‘s parent BaseObject object, or some other bizzare not-what-you-wanted.

Are you absolutely sure you cannot use pointers there? That makes no sense at all, and makes this very difficult to work with.