correct way of returning strings

Hi Folks,

i've a quiestion about returning strings correctly.
is the following way a correcty one ?

Code:

---

                .
                .
                .
                string token = nextToken();
                if (token.empty())
                        done = true;
                else
                .
                .
                .
               
       
string nextToken()
{
                string dummy;

                reutrn (dummy);        // just return an empty string.
}

---

It works but is it safe to use it like this ???

Regards,
Robert

Yes. This is the kind of thing strings are made for.

ok. ...
where is the varaible then created. ???
Till now i thought that when a function is closed (return from) the stack is cleand up.
So in this case the dummy would be deleted.

Regards,
Robert

The return value is copied into the value being assigned in the calling routine before the stack is unwound and the return completed. If no assignment is being made, the return value is discarded.

In some cases, it can be more complicated than that where temporary copies are made first then copied into the calling routine. Particulaly the case when returning objects hence the need for copy constructors when returning objects from functions.

It is usually more efficient (unless you have a copy-on-write string implementation) to pass a string by reference instead:

Code:

---

string token;
nextToken(token);

void nextToken(string &out)
{
  out = codeToGetToken;
}

---

Thanks guys !!


-
Robert