From: "Antti Kurenniemi" 

Thanks Paul. Been too long since I did C++ I see 


Antti Kurenniemi
(or maybe not long enough )

"Paul Ranson"  wrote in message
news:4190ff3b{at}w3.nls.net... You can pass objects by value or by reference,
the behaviour is consistent.

class Date ;

bool DoDate ( Date d )
{
// d is passed by value, DoDate has its own copy.
}

bool DoDate ( Date& d )
{
// d is a reference to the caller's Date object. DoDate may change the
callers object.
}

bool DoDate ( const Date& d )
{
// d is a reference to the caller's Date object. DoDate may NOT change the
callers object.
}

bool DoDate ( Date * pd )
{
// pd is a pointer to the caller's Date object. DoDate may change the
caller's object.
}

bool DoDate ( const Date * pd )
{
// pd is a pointer to the caller's Date object. DoDate may NOT change the
caller's object.
}

It can be inefficient to pass objects by value, in effect a temporary copy
is made which only exists for the life of the function call.  So in that
case use a const reference.

Paul

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