Pointers and references

[Simon Elliott]

I have an API which returns pointers to objects, and another API which
requires a const reference, similar to:

bloggs* find_bloggs(std::string key);
void do_stuff_with_bloggs(const bloggs& the_bloggs);

which leads to a lot of code like this:

bloggs* my_bloggs = find_bloggs("foo");
if (my_bloggs)
{
do_stuff_with_bloggs(*my_bloggs);
}

The dereference at do_stuff_with_bloggs() seems untidy and makes me
wonder if there's any overhead associated with it. Is there a neater
way of doing this, or am I stuck with it?

 

[Victor Bazarov]

I have an API which returns pointers to objects, and another API which
requires a const reference, similar to:

bloggs* find_bloggs(std::string key);
void do_stuff_with_bloggs(const bloggs& the_bloggs);

which leads to a lot of code like this:

bloggs* my_bloggs = find_bloggs("foo");
if (my_bloggs)
{
do_stuff_with_bloggs(*my_bloggs);
}

The dereference at do_stuff_with_bloggs() seems untidy and makes me
wonder if there's any overhead associated with it. Is there a neater
way of doing this, or am I stuck with it?

Stop worrying. If you have to use the API, you're using it the right way.
There is no overhead (except for your uneasiness). You could improve it
ever slightly if you pass 'key' string to 'find_bloggs' by a const ref.

V