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const after a function?

General and Gameplay Programming Programming

Started by TheBlackJester September 01, 2002 07:49 PM

7 comments, last by TheBlackJester 21 years, 7 months ago

TheBlackJester

142

Author

September 01, 2002 07:49 PM

Hey, I''m getting ready to write a math header for vectors, matrices, etc, and I''ve noticed one thing. I was looking through OpenGL Game Programming to get an idea of how its done, and I noticed that a few of the operators have the ''const'' keyword after them, as well as before. I''m just wondering what purpose it serves in that context. Here''s an example.


// Vector subtraction
const CVector operator-(const CVector& vec) const

Thanx ahead of time

"With my feet upon the ground I lose myself between the sounds and open wide to suck it in, I feel it move across my skin. I''m reaching up and reaching out. I''m reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me, what ever will bewilder me. And following our will and wind we may just go where no one''s been. We''ll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one''s been." - Maynard James Keenan [TheBlackJester ] [Wildfire Studios ]

"With my feet upon the ground I lose myself between the sounds and open wide to suck it in, I feel it move across my skin. I'm reaching up and reaching out. I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me, what ever will bewilder me. And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been. We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been." - Maynard James Keenan Name: [email=darkswordtbj@hotmail.com]TheBlackJester[/email]Team: Wildfire Games
Projects O A.D.The Last Alliance

Gladiator

127

September 01, 2002 09:12 PM

The const after the function promises the compiler that this function won''t be changing any of its data members.

Hope this helps!

-G|aD-

Xai

1,851

September 01, 2002 09:21 PM

const before a function means the RETURN type is const, const before a parameter means that parameter is const ... and const after the function means the function is const. This can only have any meaning for member functions ... because normal functions and static functions don''t have any member variables to promise not to change.

eXistenZ

122

September 01, 2002 10:28 PM

Ahhh!
I hate constants. what about pointer constants whats the differance between:
char *name const
and
char const *name

EbonySeraph

122

September 01, 2002 11:56 PM

I dont think the "char *name const" means anything. That would bring a compile error...

"Ogun's Laughter Is No Joke!!!" - Ogun Kills On The Right, A Nigerian Poem.

eXistenZ

122

September 02, 2002 12:24 AM

ok so what about

int *var const;
and
int const *var

Does one of them mean the address of another variable is const in the pointer variable? And does the other one mean the value where the address points to is const??

[edited by - eXistenZ on September 2, 2002 1:25:50 AM]

Taulin

100

September 02, 2002 02:06 AM

int *x const; is nothing I believe. Does it even compile?

The classic rule is to read it backwards to understand it.

int * const x; // X is a const pointer to an int. The point can not change.

const int* x; // X is a pointer to a const int. The pointer can only point to a const int.

Const helps compiler optimization in many cases. Another rule many people go by (as a semi-joke) is to simply make everything const, then remove them until it works.

Xai

1,851

September 04, 2002 03:12 PM

as Taulin said ...

int *x const
// is invalid c++

int * const x;
// x is a constant pointer to an int. The pointer cannot change.

const int* x;
// x is a pointer to a const int. The pointer can only point to a const int.

and also ...

const int * const x;
// x is a constant pointer to a constant int ...

this syntax:

const TYPE * VARAIBLE;

is very common, to provide pointer to variable you cannot change ...

this syntax:

TYPE * const VARIABLE;

is really not very important, because we have references which server the same purpose ... you can replace these:

int * const x;

with these:

int &x

of course you have to change -> to . and make sure it doesn''t need to be null ...

eXistenZ

122

September 04, 2002 03:34 PM

ok thanks I get it now...

const after a function?

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