Initialization of reference member requires a temporary variable C++

Question

struct Div
{
   int i;
   int j;
};   

class A
{
    public:
             A();
             Div& divs;
};

In my constructor definition, I have

Answer 1

divs is a reference, not a pointer. You can't set it to NULL, it has to point to an actual object of some kind. The best thing to do here is probably to define a static/global instance of Div that you arbitrarily define to be the "Null Div" (set its value to something you're unlikely ever to use) and initialize div to that. Something like this:

struct Div
{
   int i;
   int j;
};   

Div NULL_DIV = { INT_MAX, INT_MAX };

class A
{
    public:
             A();
             Div& divs;
};


A::A() : divs(NULL_DIVS)
{
}

Or, alternatively, just make divs a pointer instead of a reference.

*Note that you can't use a const reference unless you cast away the constness because by default the compiler won't allow you to assign a cosnt ref to a non-const ref.