From: francis.glassborow@btinternet.com   
      
   On 30/10/2013 16:29, Martin Bonner wrote:   
   > On Wednesday, October 30, 2013 12:00:02 AM UTC, Robert Simpson wrote:   
   >> My question is, if I have a function taking an argument by   
   >> reference, is it bad practice to call that function with a   
   >> dereferenced pointer?   
   >   
   > No, provided you know (possibly because you have already checked)   
   > that the pointer is not null.   
   >   
   >   
   >> void myfunc( Widget& w );   
   >> std::unique_ptr< Widget > mywidget;   
   >   
   >    mywidget = new Widget; // Need to set mywidget.   
   >   
   >> myfunc( *mywidget.get() );   
   >   
   >> I have written this in my code, but I believe that   
   >> there is probably a better solution.   
   >   
   > "Better" in what sense?   
   >   
   > If your pointer *can* be null, then you can't dereference   
   > it to pass it to the function.  You need a genuine object   
   > to bind the reference to.   
   >   
   >   
      
   But you could provide an overload of the function that accepts a   
   pointer, checks that it it points to an actual object and then   
   forwards to the original function. Failure could be handled through   
   throwing an exception.   
      
   Francis   
      
      
      
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