Potentially uninitialized local pointer variable used

[gedamial]

Hi.

Look at this local pointer variable

Node*& searchResult{ SearchPrivateRef(key,root) };

And now look at the SearchPrivateRef() function

Node*& SearchPrivateRef(T const& key, Node*& current) const
{
	if (current->value == key)
	     return current;

	if (key < current->value)
	     return SearchPrivateRef(key, current->left);

	if (key > current->value)
	     return SearchPrivateRef(key, current->right);
}

This code used to compile before updating Clang. Now it doesn't anymore.

I don't see a scenario where the pointer could result as NULL... but it is a reference and it can't be.

Where's the problem?

[helios]

What happens if the key is not found? It would appear this would recurse forever.

[gedamial]

The SearchPrivateRef() is called after we know for sure the key is in the tree (although it's not mentioned)

[ne555]

that seems useless and repetitive.


You do have some misconceptions.
- "uninitialized" doesn't mean "initialized to NULL". Assigning NULL would be a initialization.
- you've got a reference to a pointer. The reference may be valid, but that says nothing of the pointer. The value stored in the pointer may be NULL.
- the message is probably a warning, not an error (or if it is an error, you may be able to supress it)

Finally, for a better guess, you ought to provide enough code to reproduce your issue.