Can getters be marked `noexcept`?

Question

For a class such as this:

class CharMatrix
{
public:
.
.
.

private:
    int m_Y_AxisLen;
    int m_X_AxisLen;
    char m_fillCharacter;
    mutable std::vector< std::vector<char> > m_characterMatrix;
}


inline const int& CharMatrix::getY_AxisLen( ) const
{
    return m_Y_AxisLen;
}

inline const int& CharMatrix::getX_AxisLen( ) const
{
    return m_X_AxisLen;
}

inline const char& CharMatrix::getFillCharacter( ) const
{
    return m_fillCharacter;
}

inline std::vector< std::vector<char> >& CharMatrix::getCharacterMatrix( ) const
{
    return m_characterMatrix;
}

Can one mark all of these getter member functions as noexcept? Is there any chance that any of these getters might throw?

Another question is that can operator[] of std::vector throw? I checked cppreference but there was no mention of exceptions.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/241550/discussion-on-question-by-digito-evo-can-getters-be-marked-noexcept). — Machavity, Jan 30 '22 at 19:42

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 14 '22 at 11:01

Can one mark all of these getter member functions as noexcept?
Is there any chance that any of these getters might throw?

You can mark them as noexcept.

A simple return (by reference) cannot throw.
A return by copy might throw depending of the copied type.

can operator[] of std::vector throw?

For valid index, no.
For invalid index, your are in UB. It is not marked as noexcept to let the opportunity to "compiler" to add extra checks and possibly handle failure with exception.

Can getters be marked `noexcept`?

1 Answers1