2.4.1. References to const
As with any other object, we can bind a reference to an object of a const
type. To do so we use a reference to const
, which is a reference that refers to a const
type. Unlike an ordinary reference, a reference to const
cannot be used to change the object to which the reference is bound:
const int ci = 1024;const int &r1 = ci; // ok: both reference and underlying object are constr1 = 42; // error: r1 is a reference to constint &r2 = ci; // error: non const reference to a const object
Because we cannot assign directly to ci
, we also should not be able to use a reference to change ci
. Therefore, ...
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