Question

I think the following is really basic but I don’t really get what would be the “advantages” of one of these code.

Having this:

int main()
{
    int a = 10;
    f(a);
    return 0;
}

What would be the difference between

void f(int& a)
{
    int& b = a;
}

and

void f(int& a)
{
    int b = a;
}

In particular, in the case where f would instead be the constructor of a class and where instead of an int we have a big object.

I would go with the second possibility… What do you think ?

Thanks.

Edit:

First, looking at the answers, I though I was brain dead when I posted the question, but actually I found interesting subquestions (and answers !) in the comments.

Answer 1

First:

void f(int& a) {
    int& b = a;
}

The caller passes in an a, which we get as a reference to the caller’s a. Then we create a new referece b which refers to a, which is still the caller’s a. As a result, any changes the caller makes will be visible to f and its containing class, and any changes made in f to either a or b will affect what the caller passed in as a.

void f(int& a) {
    int b = a;
}

Here, b is a new variable, an int, which takes a copy of a. Changes made to b won’t affect the caller, nor will the caller affect b. But a quicker way of writing the same thing is:

void f(int b) {
}

and dispense with the a reference entirely. In particular, this shows in the prototype that the function will not modify its parameter, because it cannot; while a prototype of void f (int &a) indicates that it may modify a.

Edit: if you need to avoid any copying, a Third Option ™ is a reference to const:

void f(const int &a) {
    const int &b = a;
}

inside f, neither a nor b can be modified, so it can’t affect the caller, but copying is avoided by using a reference to const. There is still a potential problem that any changes to a caused by the caller will be visible inside the object, because there is only one actual data item a and many names for it; that’s something you’d have to document to ensure the caller does not do any such thing.