C++: returning by reference and copy constructors

Question

References in C++ are baffling me. :)

The basic idea is that I\'m trying to return an object from a function. I\'d like to do it without returning a pointer (because

Answer 1

You are stucked with either:

1) returning a pointer

MyClass* func(){ //some stuf return new MyClass(a,b,c); }

2) returning a copy of the object MyClass func(){ return MyClass(a,b,c); }

Returning a reference is not valid because the object is to be destroyed after exiting the func scope, except if the function is a member of the class and the reference is from a variable that is member of the class.