How to “return an object” in C++?

Question

I know the title sounds familiar as there are many similar questions, but I\'m asking for a different aspect of the problem (I know the difference between having things on t

Answer 1

Did you try to use smart pointers (if Thing is really big and heavy object), like auto_ptr:

std::auto_ptr calculateThing()
{
  std::auto_ptr thing(new Thing);
  // .. some calculations
  return thing;
}


// ...
{
  std::auto_ptr thing = calculateThing();
  // working with thing

  // auto_ptr frees thing 
}