Is returning a reference ever a good idea?

Question

We all know that returning a reference to a local variable is a bad idea. However, I\'m wondering if it\'s ever really a good idea to a return a reference at all and if it\'s po

Answer 1

Personally, I like returning references to static variables when I want to implement the Singleton pattern

SomeClass& getTheSingleton()
{
    static SomeClass theInstance;
    return theInstance;
}

I dont have to write any logic involving whether or not some pointer is initialized, and it gives me some control over the order of static initialization