An updated writeup of the copy-and-swap idiom is now available on the More C++ Idioms wikibook. A comparison of two different styles of assignment operator is shown. First version accepts the parameter as pass-by-const-reference whereas the second version accepts it as pass-by-value. For some classes pass-by-value turns out to be more efficient as a copy of the object is elided when the right hand side is a rvalue.
What new can be said about multi-dimensional arrays in C++? As it turns out, quite a bit! With the advent of C++11, we get new standard library class std::array. We also get new language features, such as template aliases and variadic templates. So I'll talk about interesting ways in which they come together. It all started with a simple question of how to define a multi-dimensional std::array. It is a great example of deceptively simple things. Are the following the two arrays identical except that one is native and the other one is std::array? int native[3][4]; std::array<std::array<int, 3>, 4> arr; No! They are not. In fact, arr is more like an int[4][3]. Note the difference in the array subscripts. The native array is an array of 3 elements where every element is itself an array of 4 integers. 3 rows and 4 columns. If you want a std::array with the same layout, what you really need is: std::array<std::array<int, 4>, 3> arr; That's quite annoying for
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Btw, that site is a great resource Im suprised this is the first time I've came across it. Thanks.
String &operator=(String)
and
String &operator=(const String &)
cases. But if it was not inline than the first would be better.
maarten - When rvalue reference types come in C++0x, it would be the same good as the copy-in version. However rvalue references let you do similar optimizations in more different scenarios.