Wednesday 6 November 2019

c++ - Why does C++11's lambda require "mutable" keyword for capture-by-value, by default?



Short example:



#include 

int main()
{
int n;
[&](){n = 10;}(); // OK

[=]() mutable {n = 20;}(); // OK
// [=](){n = 10;}(); // Error: a by-value capture cannot be modified in a non-mutable lambda
std::cout << n << "\n"; // "10"
}


The question: Why do we need the mutable keyword? It's quite different from traditional parameter passing to named functions. What's the rationale behind?



I was under the impression that the whole point of capture-by-value is to allow the user to change the temporary -- otherwise I'm almost always better off using capture-by-reference, aren't I?




Any enlightenments?



(I'm using MSVC2010 by the way. AFAIK this should be standard)


Answer



It requires mutable because by default, a function object should produce the same result every time it's called. This is the difference between an object orientated function and a function using a global variable, effectively.


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