Dereferencing a shared pointer and assigning to it

Question

Is it ok to dereference a shared pointer, assign and assign a new object to it like so:

void foo()
{
    std::shared_ptr<std::string> x =
            std::make_shared<std::string>();

    bar(*x); // is this fine?
    // x == bsl::string("WHATEVER")
}

void bar(string& y)
{
    y = string("whatever");
}

You are making changes to the object managed by the pointer ( you are not making it manage a new object) — M.M, Jun 29 '18 at 02:47
Yes, so the above code is safe then? I don't end up modifying a temporary or something like that? — Martin F, Jun 29 '18 at 02:51
As an aside, consider using `auto` more. Repetition is error-prone. — Deduplicator, Jun 29 '18 at 08:39
@MartinF "_modifying a temporary_" What about it? Would that be bad? — curiousguy, Jun 29 '18 at 18:57

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 29 '18 at 08:47

8

Yes, this is valid. Operator * returns the result of dereferencing the stored (raw) pointer.

Dereferencing a (raw) pointer does not make a copy or return a temporary: dereferencing a pointer when passing by reference

answered Jun 29 '18 at 08:47

VLL

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Dereferencing a shared pointer and assigning to it

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