Re: [Boost-users] [any] bug? any_cast<>( any& ) returns by value

From: Delfin Rojas (drojas_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-02-13 14:08:30

Marc Mutz wrote:
<snip>
> 
> I was wondering why any_cast doesn't return a reference (as 
> boost::get does for boost::variant). To me, it seems to make 
> little sense to supply a any_cast overload with argument any& 
> in addition to const any &, for return-by-value. It also 
> needlessly invokes T's copy ctor, which esp bad if that one throws.
> 
<snip>

According to the documentation of boost::any_cast<T>, "if T is a reference
to (possibly const qualified) ValueType, it [boost::any_cast] returns a
reference to the held value."

-delfin