Returning an object in C++

Question

I am learning C++ from a background of mostly C and Java and I am curious on what is the best way to return an object in C++ without having to copy the object. From my understa

Answer 1

Often you can avoid copies by returning a const reference to a member variable. For example:

class Circle {
    Point center;
    float radius;
public:
    const Point & getCenter() const { return center; };
};

This is equivalent to return ¢er in execution and in fact will likely be inlined simply resulting in direct (read-only) access of the member from the caller.

In cases where you construct a temporary to return the compiler may elide the extra copy as an optimization, requiring no special syntax on your part.