.. title:: clang-tidy - bugprone-misleading-setter-of-reference
Finds setter-like member functions that take a pointer parameter and set a reference member of the same class with the pointed value.
The check detects member functions that take a single pointer parameter, and contain a single expression statement that dereferences the parameter and assigns the result to a data member with a reference type.
The fact that a setter function takes a pointer might cause the belief that an internal reference (if it would be a pointer) is changed instead of the pointed-to (or referenced) value.
Example:
.. code-block:: c++
class MyClass { int &InternalRef; // non-const reference member public: MyClass(int &Value) : InternalRef(Value) {}
// Warning: This setter could lead to unintended behaviour.
void setRef(int *Value) {
InternalRef = *Value; // This assigns to the referenced value, not changing what InternalRef references.
}
};
int main() { int Value1 = 42; int Value2 = 100; MyClass X(Value1);
// This might look like it changes what InternalRef references to, // but it actually modifies Value1 to be 100. X.setRef(&Value2);
}
Possible fixes: