C++ member functions with same name and parameters, different return type

Question

is it valid if I define member functions with same name¶meters but different return types inside a class like this:

class Test {
public:
    int a;
          


        

Answer 1

no, it is not valid, but in your example it is, because the last const is actually part of the signature (the hidden Foo *this first parameter is now const Foo *this).

It is used to access in read-only (get const reference, the method is constant), or write (get non-const reference, the method is not constant)

it's still a good design choice to return the reference of the same entity (constant or non-constant) in both methods of course!