Question

Possible Duplicate:
Why does the use of ‘new’ cause memory leaks?

What is the difference between (if there is one):

   Player player=*(new Player()); 

and:

   Player &player=*(new Player());

Both (seem to) behave the same way, but I surely miss something?!?

Answer 1

The difference is that the first makes a copy, whereas the second creates a reference to the object pointed to by the pointer returned by new Player().

Player player=*(new Player()); 

copy-initializes player using the copy-constructor.

Player &player=*(new Player());

just creates an alias for *(new Player()), which is valid because new Player() isn’t a temporary. Player& player = Player() would be illegal because of that.

They’re the same in that they both suck.