reference variable

Question

In some text it is given that we can\'t assign constant values to a reference variable. When I executed such a program I could do it. Is there any condition we can\'t assign

Answer 1

You may be a bit confused regarding the difference between "initialisation" and "assignment". These are different in C++ and understanding the difference is crucial to understanding the language. Ignoring references:

int x = 1;    // initialisation
x = 1;        // assignment

References can only be initialised

int & r = x;  // initialisation
r = 2;        // assigns 2 to x _not_ to r

There is no way of re-initialising a reference.

Regarding your question, as far as consts are concerned, you can initialise const reference with a const value:

const int & r2 = 42;