Introducing Mechanisms and APIs for Memory Management: Using Windows OS Native Runtime APIs

© Roger Villela 2020

R. VillelaIntroducing Mechanisms and APIs for Memory Management https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5416-5_5

5. Working with Lvalue and Rvalue References

Roger Villela¹ 

(1)

Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

 

In this chapter, you will learn about C++ references, specifically about C++ lvalue and rvalue references.

Purpose of a C++ Reference

In one word, the purpose of a C++ reference is efficiency.

Additionally, C++ references reduce syntactical complexity, and developers experience difficulties and insecurity when dealing directly with raw pointers.

A C++ reference stores a memory address.

A C++ reference, as well as a pointer, stores a memory address. The difference between a pointer and a reference is that, once initialized, a C++ reference ...