The type of *this

[George2]

Hello everyone,


I am confused what is the type of *this? Type of reference to instance
or type of instance?

Looks like both code can compile, no warning messages. Any ideas?

class A{

	A& foo1()
	{
		return *this;
	}

	A foo2()
	{
		return *this;
	}
};

thanks in advance,
George

 

[Abhishek Padmanabh]

Hello everyone,

I am confused what is the type of *this? Type of reference to instance
or type of instance?

When you say type of reference - reference just an alias for an object
- so you can understand it to be the same as type of instance/object.

Looks like both code can compile, no warning messages. Any ideas?

class A{

A& foo1()
{
return *this;
}

A foo2()
{
return *this;
}};

Both compile because in one you return a reference to the object (no
copy of *this involved) and in the second case you are returning by
value. That is the difference. The type of *this is same as A.