std::reference_wrapper is a class template that wraps a reference in a copyable, assignable object. Usages:
- std::reference_wrapper is primarily used to store references inside standard containers which cannot hold references. In my projects, no one ever stores references in containers. Pointless.
- std::reference_wrapper is also used to pass objects by reference to the constructor of std::thread, or the helper functions std::make_pair() and std::make_tuple()
Helper functions std::ref and std::cref() are often used to generate std::reference_wrapper objects.
See https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/utility/functional/reference_wrapper
–details on the std::thread usage
https://github.com/tiger40490/repo1/blob/cpp1/cpp/thr/takeTurn.cpp shows that without std::ref(), the object passed to std::thread ctor is a clone, so the original object is not updated by the thread routine.
My https://github.com/tiger40490/repo1/blob/cpp1/cpp/thr/functorToThrCtor.cpp uses std::ref() too. Same code also shows another adapter wrapper for a function
https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/thread/thread/thread says std::ref() is likely needed.
https://thispointer.com/c11-multithreading-part-3-carefully-pass-arguments-to-threads/ has detailed sample code