Question

Why doesn’t pop_back() have a return value? I have Googled regarding this and found out that it makes it more efficient. Is this the only reason for making it so in the standard?

Answer 1

I think there is something related to the fact that copying an instance of the last object could throw an exception. When doing so, you’re losing your object, since pop_back() did remove it from your container. Better with a few lines of code:

std::vector<AnyClass> holds = {...} ;
try {
  const AnyClass result = holds.pop_back(); // The copy Ctor throw here!
} catch (...)
{ 
 // Last value lost here. 
}