Returning a “NULL reference” in C++?

Question

In dynamically typed languages like JavaScript or PHP, I often do functions such as:

function getSomething(name) {
    if (content_[name]) return content_[na         


        

Answer 1

I can think of a few ways to handle this:

• As others suggested, use boost::optional
• Make the object have a state that indicates it is not valid (Yuk!)
• Use pointer instead of reference
• Have a special instance of the class that is the null object
• Throw an exception to indicate failure (not always applicable)