references can also allocate memory for a single entity on the heap.
References and pointers are not necessarily on the heap. And reference cannot allocate (strictly speaking). But references and pointers can reference/point to variables that are allocated on the heap, while being themselves on the stack.
Maybe that's what you meant ;)
References can be thought of as a constant pointer T const* c_ptr = &obj and should not be confused with const T* ref = &obj
The const should be after the * (just like in your code sample below).
Returning references over local variables may cause undefined behavior (dangling references)
Same thing with pointers.
My rule of thumb for pointers vs references: if you can use a reference, then use a reference. Otherwise, use a pointer.
References and pointers are not necessarily on the heap. And reference cannot allocate (strictly speaking). But references and pointers can reference/point to variables that are allocated on the heap, while being themselves on the stack.
Maybe that's what you meant ;)
The
constshould be after the*(just like in your code sample below).Same thing with pointers.
My rule of thumb for pointers vs references: if you can use a reference, then use a reference. Otherwise, use a pointer.
Right. Thank you for clarifying what I meant. I appreciate it.