Returning a const reference to an object instead of a copy

Question

Whilst refactoring some code I came across some getter methods that returns a std::string. Something like this for example:

class foo
{
private:
    std::st         


        

Answer 1

Depends what you need to do. Maybe you want to all the caller to change the returned value without changing the class. If you return the const reference that won't fly.

Of course, the next argument is that the caller could then make their own copy. But if you know how the function will be used and know that happens anyway, then maybe doing this saves you a step later in code.