Unclear about object referencing between functions...

[Daieseo]

Hi, I have just been getting into using classes etc, but what im coming unstuck with is how a particular object that has been created maybe accessed globally by any function in the program - IE one function that creates the object and then another that changes some of its attributes at a later time.

Perhaps im just going about this all wrong - but any advise on how this is done and the best way to do it would be great.

Thanks
Dan

 

[cpjust]

The best way is to pass a reference of that object to the function. Ex:

ObjectA CreateObjectA( /* some parameters */ );
void ModifyObject( ObjectA& );

int main()
{
...
   ObjectA myObj = CreateObjectA( /* some parameters */ );
   ModifyObject( myObj );
...
}

Since ModifyObject() takes a reference to an ObjectA, it can modify myObj instead of modifying a local copy of myObj.