boost shared_ptr: difference between operator= and reset?

Question

Are there any differences between the two pieces of code below? Is any of them preferable to the other?

operator=

boost::shared_ptr&         


        

Answer 1

operator= assigns a shared_ptr to a shared_ptr, while reset makes a shared_ptr take ownership of a pointer. So, basically there is no difference between the examples you have posted. That said, you should prefer neither of them and just use make_shared:

foo = boost::make_shared();

Also, if possible, you can prevent having to declare a shared_ptr without initialization by wrapping the try-catch block in a separate function that simply returns a shared_ptr to the newly created object:

boost::shared_ptr createBlah() {
    try {
        // do stuff
        return newBlah;
    }
    catch ...
}