Understanding the ‘&’ Operator in C++

The "&" denotes a reference instead of a pointer to an object (In your case a constant reference).

The advantage of having a function such as

foo(string const& myname) 

over

foo(string const* myname)

is that in the former case you are guaranteed that myname is non-null, since C++ does not allow NULL references. Since you are passing by reference, the object is not copied, just like if you were passing a pointer.

Your second example:

const string &GetMethodName() { ... }

Would allow you to return a constant reference to, for example, a member variable. This is useful if you do not wish a copy to be returned, and again be guaranteed that the value returned is non-null. As an example, the following allows you direct, read-only access:

class A
{
  public:
  int bar() const {return someValue;}
  //Big, expensive to copy class
}

class B
{
public:
 A const& getA() { return mA;}
private:
 A mA;
}
void someFunction()
{
 B b = B();
 //Access A, ability to call const functions on A
 //No need to check for null, since reference is guaranteed to be valid.
 int value = b.getA().bar(); 
}

You have to of course be careful to not return invalid references. Compilers will happily compile the following (depending on your warning level and how you treat warnings)

int const& foo() 
{
 int a;

 //This is very bad, returning reference to something on the stack. This will
 //crash at runtime.
 return a; 
}

Basically, it is your responsibility to ensure that whatever you are returning a reference to is actually valid.

It's different.

int g_test = 0;

int& getNumberReference()
{
     return g_test;
}

int getNumberValue()
{
     return g_test;
}

int main()
{
    int& n = getNumberReference();
    int m = getNumberValue();
    n = 10;
    cout << g_test << endl; // prints 10
    g_test = 0;
    m = 10;
    cout << g_test << endl; // prints 0
    return 0;
}

the getNumberReference() returns a reference, under the hood it's like a pointer that points to an integer variable. Any change applyed to the reference applies to the returned variable.

The getNumberReference() is also a left-value, therefore it can be used like this:

getNumberReference() = 10;