Max wrote:
To make it clearer, I'm finding something like this: class Foo { int & i_; Foo& operator=(const Foo& rhs) { if(&rhs == this) return *this; i_ = rhs.i_; return *this; } }
this is not accepted by my VC9 compiler.
It isn't? I don't see a problem (other than that it may not be what you intend),
Oops, It's indeed not my intention. What I wanted is to bind i_ to rhs.i_;
Hi Max, First, the C++ standard does not allow a reference to change which object it refers to after it has been initialized. Second, I'm just curious, why do you want to do this? Why don't you use a pointer? Or perhaps wrap a pointer in a class with a typcast operator that produces a reference, if you need it to have the same syntax? Something like this: template<class T> class assignable_ref{ private: T* _pointer; public: explicit assignable_ref(T& value) :_pointer(&value) {} operator T&() const { return *_pointer; } assignable_ref& operator=(T& rhs) { _pointer = &rhs; return *this; } assignable_ref& operator=(assignable_ref<T> const & rhs) { _pointer = rhs._pointer; return *this; } }; class Foo { private: assignable_ref<int> i_; public: Foo(int& value) : i_(value){}; Foo& operator=(const Foo& rhs) { if(&rhs == this) return *this; i_ = rhs.i_; return *this; } }; -- John