Meaning of 'const' last in a function declaration of a class?

Question

What is the meaning of const in declarations like these? The const confuses me.

class foobar
{
  public:
     operator int () const         


        

Answer 1

The const qualifier means that the methods can be called on any value of foobar. The difference comes when you consider calling a non-const method on a const object. Consider if your foobar type had the following extra method declaration:

class foobar {
  ...
  const char* bar();
}

The method bar() is non-const and can only be accessed from non-const values.

void func1(const foobar& fb1, foobar& fb2) {
  const char* v1 = fb1.bar();  // won't compile
  const char* v2 = fb2.bar();  // works
}

The idea behind const though is to mark methods which will not alter the internal state of the class. This is a powerful concept but is not actually enforceable in C++. It's more of a promise than a guarantee. And one that is often broken and easily broken.

foobar& fbNonConst = const_cast(fb1);