Question

I have an object of class which has private constructor:

class CL_GUIComponent
{
    // ...
    private:
    CL_SharedPtr<CL_GUIComponent_Impl> impl;
    CL_GUIComponent(CL_GUIComponent &other);
    CL_GUIComponent &operator =(const CL_GUIComponent &other);
    CL_GraphicContext dummy_gc;
};

I have a class which has a pointer to the object of the type I described before.

class Some
{
   private:
       CL_GUIComponent *obj;
   public:
       CL_GUIComponent getComp() { return *obj; }
}

But this code calls the error:

In member function ‘CL_GUIComponent Some::getComp()’:
error: ‘CL_GUIComponent::CL_GUIComponent(CL_GUIComponent&)’ is private
error: within this context

How can I store and get that object?

Answer 1

Return a reference instead:

CL_GUIComponent& getComp() { return *obj; } 

and/or

const CL_GUIComponent& getComp() const { return *obj; } 

The code you have their is trying to return a copy, but the copy constructor is private so it can’t access it (hence the error). In any case, for non trivial objects, it’s almost always better to return a const& instead (in general, not always).