A8-4-10 - Unofficial Autosar C++ Guidelines Reference

Rule A8-4-10 (required, design, automated)

A parameter shall be passed by reference if it can’t be NULL

Rationale

Passing a parameter by pointer suggests that it can be NULL. If it can’t be NULL (i.e. it’s not optional) it should therefore be passed by reference instead. Only parameters that can be NULL shall be passed by pointer. Note: The C++ Library Fundamentals TS v2 defines std::observer_ptr as a near dropin replacement for raw pointers that makes it explicit that the object is not owned by the pointer. Note: boost::optional supports reference types, and in C++17 std::optional can be used in conjunction with std::reference_wrapper (using std::optional with a value type would create an undesirable copy of the object)

Example

// $Id: A8-4-10.cpp 307966 2018-02-16 16:03:46Z christof.meerwald $

#include <cstdint>
#include <numeric>
#include <vector>

// Non-Compliant: non-optional parameter passed by pointer

int32_t Sum(const std::vector<int32_t> *v)

{
return std::accumulate(v->begin(), v->end(), 0);

}

// Compliant: non-optional parameter passed by reference
int32_t Sum(const std::vector<int32_t> &v)
{
return std::accumulate(v.begin(), v.end(), 0);
}

Unofficial Autosar C++ Guidelines Reference

Rationale

Example

See also