Why do you even need to give a reference a data type?

[Peter87]

@ResidentBiscuit
The page you found describes the old meaning of auto. Read this instead: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6k3ybftz

[Disch]

MSDN's explanation is a little lackluster.

This is a much better read:

http://www.cprogramming.com/c++11/c++11-auto-decltype-return-value-after-function.html