Is it possible to set an object to null?

c++ object null is-empty stdoptional

John · Jun 13, 2010 · Viewed 128.2k times · Source

Further in my code, I check to see check if an object is null/empty.

Is there a way to set an object to null?

Answer

An object of a class cannot be set to NULL; however, you can set a pointer (which contains a memory address of an object) to NULL.

Example of what you can't do which you are asking:

Cat c;
c = NULL;//Compiling error

Example of what you can do:

Cat c;
//Set p to hold the memory address of the object c
Cat *p = &c;
//Set p to hold NULL
p = NULL;