Re: warning: cannot return a local value by reference

[Georg Bauhaus <sb463ba@l1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de>]

k_leau <k_leau@yahoo.com> wrote:
: Hello,
: 
: I am new to Ada programming and I have the following problem:

The value of type item_dbm that your function should return is

a) local to the function
b) limited.

(b) makes item_dbm a return-by-reference type under current rules.
(The local value will be lost when the function is done, it can
no longer be refered to).

Instead you could declare a procedure,

  procedure new_from_old(old: item_dbm; another: out item_dbm);

and then create a new item_db object, `fresh', and initialise it with
values from a previous item_db object,

  declare
     fresh: item_dbm;
  begin
     new_from_old(..., fresh);
     ...use fresh...
  end;



-- Georg