How to “return an object” in C++?

Question

I know the title sounds familiar as there are many similar questions, but I\'m asking for a different aspect of the problem (I know the difference between having things on t

Answer 1

Firstly you have an error in the code, you mean to have Thing *thing(new Thing());, and only return thing;.

• Use shared_ptr. Deref it as tho it was a pointer. It will be deleted for you when the last reference to the Thing contained goes out of scope.
• The first solution is very common in naive libraries. It has some performance, and syntactical overhead, avoid it if possible
• Use the second solution only if you can guarantee no exceptions will be thrown, or when performance is absolutely critical (you will be interfacing with C or assembly before this even becomes relevant).