Synopsis

Member functions return non-const handles to members.

Enabled by default

Yes

Severity/Certainty

Medium/High

Full description

Member functions return non-const handles to members. Implement class interfaces with member functions to retain more control over how the object state can be modified and to make it easier to maintain a class without affecting clients. Returning a handle to class-data allows clients to modify the state of the object without using any interfaces. This check is identical to MISRAC++2008-9-3-2.

Coding standards

Code examples

The following code example fails the check and will give a warning:

class C{
  int x;
 public:
  int& foo();
  int* bar();
};

int& C::foo() {
  return x;  //returns a non-const reference to x
}

int* C::bar() {
  return &x;  //returns a non-const pointer to x
}

The following code example passes the check and will not give a warning about this issue:

class C{
  int x;
 public:
  const int& foo();
  const int* bar();
};

const int& C::foo() {
  return x;  //OK - returns a const reference
}

const int* C::bar() {
  return &x;  //OK - returns a const pointer
}