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Avoiding duplication of code in const and non-const getter methods

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In C++ methods that differs only by const qualifier can be overloaded. Sometimes there may be a need of two versions of getter that return a reference to some member.

Let Foo be a class, that has two methods that perform identical operations and returns a reference to an object of type Bar: 

class Foo
{
public:
    Bar& GetBar(/* some arguments */)
    {
        /* some calculations */
        return bar;
    }
    
    const Bar& GetBar(/* some arguments */) const
    {
        /* some calculations */
        return bar;
    }

    // ...
};

The only difference between them is that one method is non-const and return a non-const reference (that can be use to modify object) and the second is const and returns const reference.

To avoid the code duplication, there is a temptation to call one method from another. However, we can not call non-const method from the const one. But we can call const method from non-const one. That will require as to use ‘const_cast’ to remove the const qualifier.

The solution is: 

struct Foo
{
    Bar& GetBar(/*arguments*/)
    {
        return const_cast<Bar&>(const_cast<const Foo*>(this)->GetBar(/*arguments*/));
    }
    
    const Bar& GetBar(/*arguments*/) const
    {
        /* some calculations */
        return foo;
    }
};

In code above, we call const version of GetBar from the non-const GetBar by casting this to const type: const_cast<const Foo*>(this). Since we call const method from non-const, the object itself is non-const, and casting away the const is allowed.

Examine the following more complete example: 

#include <iostream>

class Student
{
public:
    char& GetScore(bool midterm)
    {
        return const_cast<char&>(const_cast<const Student*>(this)->GetScore(midterm));
    }
    
    const char& GetScore(bool midterm) const
    {
        if (midterm)
        {
            return midtermScore;
        }
        else
        {
            return finalScore;
        }
    }
    
private:
    char midtermScore;
    char finalScore;
};

int main()
{
    // non-const object
    Student a; 
    // We can assign to the reference. Non-const version of GetScore is called
    a.GetScore(true) = 'B';
    a.GetScore(false) = 'A';
    
    // const object
    const Student b(a); 
    // We still can call GetScore method of const object,
    // because we have overloaded const version of GetScore
    std::cout << b.GetScore(true) << b.GetScore(false) << '\n'; 
}
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const keyword:
* Syntax
* Const local variables
* Const pointers
* Const member functions
* Avoiding duplication of code in const and non-const getter methods
Table Of Contents
0 Getting started
1 Literals
2 Basic type keywords
3 Operator precedence
4 Floating point arithmetic
5 Bit operators
6 Bit manipulation
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10 const keyword
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13 friend keyword
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16 auto keyword
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29 std::any
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31 std::optional
32 std::integer_sequence
33 std::function
34 std::forward_list
35 std::iomanip
36 Iterators
37 Basic I/O
38 File I/O
39 Streams
40 Stream manipulators
41 Metaprogramming
42 Returning multiple values from a function
43 References
44 Polymorphism
45 Value and reference semantics
46 Function call by value vs. by reference
47 Copying vs assignment
48 Pointers to class / struct members
49 The this pointer
50 Smart pointers
51 Unions
52 Templates
53 Namespaces
54 Function overloading
55 Operator overloading
56 Lambdas
57 Threading
58 Value categories
59 Preprocessor
60 SFINAE
61 Rule of three, five and zero
62 RAII
63 Exceptions
64 Implementation-defined behavior
65 Special member functions
66 Random numbers
67 Sorting
68 Regular expressions
69 Perfect forwarding
70 Virtual member functions
71 Undefined behavior
72 Overload resolution
73 Move semantics
74 Pimpl idiom
75 Copy elision
76 Fold expressions
77 Unnamed types
78 Singleton
79 ISO C++ Standard
80 User-defined literals
81 Type erasure
82 Memory management
83 Explicit type conversions
84 RTTI
85 Standard library algorithms
86 Expression templates
87 Scopes
88 Atomic types
89 static assert
90 constexpr
91 Date and time with std::chrono
92 Trailing return type
93 Function template overloading
94 Common compile linker errors
95 Design patterns
96 Optimizations
97 Compiling and building
98 Type traits
99 One definition rule
100 Unspecified behavio
101 Argument dependent name lookup
102 Attributes
103 Internationalization
104 Profiling
105 Return type covariance
106 Non-static member functions
107 Recursion
108 Callable objects
109 Constant class member functions
110 C++ vs. C++ 11 vs C++ 17
111 Inline functions
112 Client server examples
113 Header files
114 Const correctness
115 Refactoring techniques
116 Parameter packs
117 Iteration
118 type deduction
119 C++ 11 memory model
120 Build systems
121 Concurrency with OpenMP
122 Type inference
123 Resource management
124 Storage class specifiers
125 Alignment
126 Inline variables
127 Linkage specifications
128 Curiusly recurring template pattern
129 Using declaration
130 Typedef and type aliases
131 Layout of object types
132 C incompatibilities
133 Optimization
134 Semaphore
135 Thread synchronization
136 Debugging
137 Futures and promises
138 More undefined behaviors
139 Mutexes
140 Recursive mutex
141 Unit testing
142 decltype
143 Digit separators
144 C++ Containers
145 Arithmetic meta-programming
146 Contributors