std::ref, std::cref

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Utilities library

Language support Type support (basic types, RTTI) Library feature-test macros (C++20) Dynamic memory management Program utilities Coroutine support (C++20) Variadic functions is_constant_evaluated (C++20) is_within_lifetime (C++26) initializer_list (C++11) source_location (C++20) Three-way comparison (C++20) three_way_comparablethree_way_comparable_with (C++20)(C++20) strong_ordering (C++20) weak_ordering (C++20) partial_ordering (C++20) common_comparison_category (C++20) compare_three_way_result (C++20) compare_three_way (C++20) strong_order (C++20) weak_order (C++20) partial_order (C++20) compare_strong_order_fallback (C++20) compare_weak_order_fallback (C++20) compare_partial_order_fallback (C++20)    is_eqis_neqis_ltis_lteqis_gtis_gteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)(C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

General utilities Date and time Function objects Formatting library (C++20) bitset hash (C++11) Relational operators (deprecated in C++20) rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator> rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>= Integer comparison functions cmp_equalcmp_lesscmp_less_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)    cmp_not_equalcmp_greatercmp_greater_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20) in_range (C++20) Swap and type operations swap ranges::swap (C++20) exchange (C++14) declval (C++11) to_underlying (C++23) forward (C++11) forward_like (C++23) move (C++11) move_if_noexcept (C++11) as_const (C++17) Common vocabulary types pair tuple (C++11) optional (C++17) any (C++17) variant (C++17) tuple_size (C++11) tuple_element (C++11) apply (C++17) make_from_tuple (C++17) expected (C++23) Elementary string conversions to_chars (C++17) from_chars (C++17) chars_format (C++17)

 

Function objects

Function wrappers function (C++11) move_only_function (C++23) copyable_function (C++26) function_ref (C++26) mem_fn (C++11) bad_function_call (C++11)	Partial function application bind_frontbind_back (C++20)(C++23) bind (C++11) is_bind_expression (C++11) is_placeholder (C++11) _1, _2, _3, ... (C++11)
Function invocation invokeinvoke_r (C++17)(C++23) Identity function object identity (C++20)	Reference wrappers reference_wrapper (C++11) refcref (C++11)(C++11) unwrap_referenceunwrap_ref_decay (C++20)(C++20)
Operator wrappers plus minus negate multiplies    divides modulus bit_and bit_or bit_not (C++14)   bit_xor equal_to not_equal_to greater less greater_equal less_equal logical_and logical_or logical_not	Transparent operator wrappers plus<> (C++14) minus<> (C++14) negate<> (C++14) multiplies<> (C++14)   divides<> (C++14) modulus<> (C++14) bit_and<> (C++14) bit_or<> (C++14) bit_not<> (C++14) bit_xor<> (C++14) equal_to<> (C++14) not_equal_to<> (C++14) greater<> (C++14) less<> (C++14) greater_equal<> (C++14) less_equal<> (C++14) logical_and<> (C++14) logical_or<> (C++14) logical_not<> (C++14)
Negators not_fn (C++17) Searchers default_searcher (C++17) boyer_moore_searcher (C++17) boyer_moore_horspool_searcher (C++17)	Constrained comparators ranges::equal_to (C++20) ranges::not_equal_to (C++20) ranges::greater (C++20) ranges::less (C++20) ranges::greater_equal (C++20) ranges::less_equal (C++20) compare_three_way (C++20)
Old binders and adaptors
unary_function (until C++17*) binary_function (until C++17*) ptr_fun (until C++17*) pointer_to_unary_function (until C++17*) pointer_to_binary_function (until C++17*) mem_fun (until C++17*) mem_fun_tmem_fun1_tconst_mem_fun_tconst_mem_fun1_t (until C++17*)(until C++17*)(until C++17*)(until C++17*) not1 (until C++20*) not2 (until C++20*)	binder1stbinder2nd (until C++17*)(until C++17*) bind1stbind2nd (until C++17*)(until C++17*) mem_fun_ref (until C++17*) mem_fun_ref_tmem_fun1_ref_tconst_mem_fun_ref_tconst_mem_fun1_ref_t (until C++17*)(until C++17*)(until C++17*)(until C++17*) unary_negate (until C++20*) binary_negate (until C++20*)

 

Defined in header <functional>
	(1)
template< class T > std::reference_wrapper<T> ref( T& t ) noexcept;			(since C++11) (until C++20)
template< class T > constexpr std::reference_wrapper<T> ref( T& t ) noexcept;			(since C++20)
		(2)
template< class T > std::reference_wrapper<T>     ref( std::reference_wrapper<T> t ) noexcept;				(since C++11) (until C++20)
template< class T > constexpr std::reference_wrapper<T>     ref( std::reference_wrapper<T> t ) noexcept;				(since C++20)
template< class T > void ref( const T&& ) = delete;			(3)	(since C++11)
			(4)
template< class T > std::reference_wrapper<const T> cref( const T& t ) noexcept;					(since C++11) (until C++20)
template< class T > constexpr std::reference_wrapper<const T> cref( const T& t ) noexcept;					(since C++20)
				(5)
template< class T > std::reference_wrapper<const T>     cref( std::reference_wrapper<T> t ) noexcept;						(since C++11) (until C++20)
template< class T > constexpr std::reference_wrapper<const T>     cref( std::reference_wrapper<T> t ) noexcept;						(since C++20)
template< class T > void cref( const T&& ) = delete;					(6)	(since C++11)

Function templates ref and cref are helper functions that generate an object of type std::reference_wrapper, using template argument deduction to determine the template argument of the result.

T may be an incomplete type.

(since C++20)

Parameters

t

-

lvalue reference to object that needs to be wrapped or an instance of std::reference_wrapper

Return value

1) std::reference_wrapper<T>(t)

2) t

4) std::reference_wrapper<const T>(t)

5) t

3,6) rvalue reference wrapper is deleted.

Example

Run this code

#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
 
void f(int& n1, int& n2, const int& n3)
{
    std::cout << "In function: " << n1 << ' ' << n2 << ' ' << n3 << '\n';
    ++n1; // increments the copy of n1 stored in the function object
    ++n2; // increments the main()'s n2
    // ++n3; // compile error
}
 
int main()
{
    int n1 = 1, n2 = 2, n3 = 3;
    std::function<void()> bound_f = std::bind(f, n1, std::ref(n2), std::cref(n3));
    n1 = 10;
    n2 = 11;
    n3 = 12;
    std::cout << "Before function: " << n1 << ' ' << n2 << ' ' << n3 << '\n';
    bound_f();
    std::cout << "After function: " << n1 << ' ' << n2 << ' ' << n3 << '\n';
}

Output:

Before function: 10 11 12
In function: 1 11 12
After function: 10 12 12

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 3146	C++11	unwrapping overloads sometimes led to error	made always valid

See also

reference_wrapper (C++11)

CopyConstructible and CopyAssignable reference wrapper (class template)