ARTICLE AD BOX
Consider the following piece of pseudo-code:
class Foo { public: Foo &operator=(const Foo& right) { this->ptr = right.ptr; this->ptr = std::move( right.ptr ); } private: std::unique_ptr<SomeClass> ptr; };The code above will fail to compile because unique_ptr is not copyable..
I also can't use std::move() as it gives an error with MSVC:
attempt to reference a deleted function
How to properly implement operator=() in this case?
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You're trying to implement the copy assignment operator for something that just isn't copyable. What is the actual and underlying problem you need to solve? It smells like you have a design problem that you try to solve through code, which is most often a bad idea.
2026-02-10 05:39:36 +00:00
Commented 1 hour ago
You have to implement copy and assignment operators and decide how to handle the std::unique_ptr. One option is to clone the object it manages (and create a new std::unique_ptr).
2026-02-10 05:42:51 +00:00
Commented 1 hour ago
@Richard, thank you for the links - they are very helpful. After looking thru them I think I will have to convert to shared_ptr. The reason being that SomeClass is a base class and I will be creating derived pointers on the fly. Thx for those links once again. I'll upvote the comment.
2026-02-10 06:24:55 +00:00
Commented 35 mins ago