Does return statement copy values

Question

I am wondering about this because of scope issues. For example, consider the code

typedef struct {
    int x1;/*top*/
    int x2;/*bottom*/
    int id;
} sub         


        

Answer 1

It returns a copy, which is what you want it to do. Changing it to return a reference will result in undefined behaviour in the assignment to line.

However, the idiomatic way to do this in C++ is with constructors and assignment lists. This encapsulates code and data structures better, and allows you to avoid the plethora of intermediate objects that compilers are free to construct/destruct/copy.

struct subline_t {
        int x1;/*top*/
        int x2;/*bottom*/
        int id;

// constructor which initialises values with assignment list.
  subline_t(int the_x1, int the_x2, int the_id) :
    x1(the_x1),
    x2(the_x2),
    id(the_id)
  {
  }
};


int main(){
    subline_t line2(0,0,0); // never requires a copy or assignment.
}