Why can I pass a reference to an uninitialized element in c++?

user_16445948 0
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Why does the following code compile?

class Demo
{
    public:
    Demo() : a(this->a){}
    int& a;
};

int main()
{
    Demo d;
}

In this case, a is a reference to an integer. However, when I initialize Demo, I pass a reference to a reference of an integer which has not yet been initialized. Why does this compile?

This still compiles even if instead of int, I use a reference to a class which has a private default constructor. Why is this allowed?

c++
3 Answers

Why does this compile?

Because it is syntactically valid.

C++ is not a safe programming language. There are several features that make it easy to do the right thing, but preventing someone from doing the wrong thing is not a priority. If you are determined to do something foolish, nothing will stop you. As long as you follow the syntax, you can try to do whatever you want, no matter how ludicrous the semantics. Keep that in mind: compiling is about syntax, not semantics.*

That being said, the people who write compilers are not without pity. They know the common mistakes (probably from personal experience), and they recognize that your compiler is in a good position to spot certain kinds of semantic mistakes. Hence, most compilers will emit warnings when you do certain things (not all things) that do not make sense. That is why you should always enable compiler warnings.

Warnings do not catch all logical errors, but for the ones they do catch (such as warning: 'Demo::a' is initialized with itself and warning: '*this.Demo::a' is used uninitialized), you've saved yourself a ton of debugging time.

* OK, there are some semantics involved in compiling, such as giving a meaning to identifiers. When I say compiling is not about semantics, I am referring to a higher level of semantics, such as the intended behavior.

user_98373010

Why does this compile?

Because there is no rule that would make the program ill-formed.

Why is this allowed?

To be clear, the program is well-formed, so it compiles. But the behaviour of the program is undefined, so from that perspective, the premise of your question is flawed. This isn't allowed.

It isn't possible to prove all cases where an indeterminate value is used, and it isn't easy to specify which of the easy cases should be detected by the compiler, and which would be considered to be too difficult. As such, the standard doesn't attempt to specify it, and leaves it up to the compiler to warn when it is able to detect it. For what it's worth, GCC is able to detect it in this case for example.

user_20793030

C++ allows you to pass a reference to a reference to uninitialized data because you might want to use the called function as the initializer.

user_309970
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