How to return a class object by reference in C++?

Question

I have a class called Object which stores some data.

I would like to return it by reference using a function like this:

    Object& return_Object(); 

Then, in my code, I would call it like this:

    Object myObject = return_Object(); 

I have written code like this and it compiles. However, when I run the code, I consistently get a seg fault. What is the proper way to return a class object by reference?

Answer 1

You're probably returning an object that's on the stack. That is, return_Object() probably looks like this:

Object& return_Object() {     Object object_to_return;     // ... do stuff ...      return object_to_return; } 

If this is what you're doing, you're out of luck - object_to_return has gone out of scope and been destructed at the end of return_Object, so myObject refers to a non-existent object. You either need to return by value, or return an Object declared in a wider scope or newed onto the heap.