Reference initialization in C++

Question

Greetings, everyone!

Examining my own code, I came up to this interesting line:

const CString &refStr = ( CheckCondition() ) ? _T(\"foo\") : _T(\"bar         


        

Answer 1

Uninitialized references cannot exist.

Unfortunately funny things can be done during initialization. You could have also written

const int& a = foobar(a) ? 1 : 2;

or for the matter

const int& a = a;

I suppose as the compiler proceeds from left to right, a is indeed in scope on the right side, so technically you should be able to use it and at best it can warn:

"ComeauTest.c", line 9: warning: variable "a" is used before its value is set

  const int& a = foobar(a) ? 1 : 2;
                        ^

Naturally this can only result in undefined behavior as with using any uninitialized variable.

Your example is fine, since you don't use the reference before it has been initialized.