Question

if you have a clear() function that clears all elements in an array, do you use the void type or the referens to the type you are working with and returning *this.

Ex.

void Vector<T>::clear() {   
}

or

Vector& Vector<T>::clear(){
    return *this
}

I don’t really understand when to return “this” and when to use void type.

Answer 1

I assume returning *this is useful to chain API calls. obj.doSomething().doSomethingElseAfterwards(). So calls where chaining is useful, such as add are good candidates for *this. And methods where chaining is not very useful might return void.

Personally I’m not fond of this chaining style, but many people like the fluent APIs this allows.