# ReferenceCount

from pandac.PandaModules import ReferenceCount

Class : ReferenceCount
Description : A base class for all things that want to be reference-counted. ReferenceCount works in conjunction with PointerTo to automatically delete objects when the last pointer to them goes away.

## Inheritance:

ReferenceCount:

## Methods of ReferenceCount:

getClassType
getRefCount
ref
testRefCountIntegrity
testRefCountNonzero
unref

getClassType static TypeHandle ReferenceCount::get_class_type(void); Undocumented function.

getRefCount int ReferenceCount::get_ref_count(void) const; Description: Returns the current reference count.

ref void ReferenceCount::ref(void) const; Description: Explicitly increments the reference count. User code should avoid using ref() and unref() directly, which can result in missed reference counts. Instead, let a PointerTo object manage the reference counting automatically. This function is const, even though it changes the object, because generally fiddling with an object's reference count isn't considered part of fiddling with the object. An object might be const in other ways, but we still need to accurately count the number of references to it.

testRefCountIntegrity bool ReferenceCount::test_ref_count_integrity(void) const; Description: Does some easy checks to make sure that the reference count isn't completely bogus. Returns true if ok, false otherwise.

testRefCountNonzero bool ReferenceCount::test_ref_count_nonzero(void) const; Description: Does some easy checks to make sure that the reference count isn't zero, or completely bogus. Returns true if ok, false otherwise.

unref bool ReferenceCount::unref(void) const; Description: Explicitly decrements the reference count. Note that the object will not be implicitly deleted by unref() simply because the reference count drops to zero. (Having a member function delete itself is problematic; plus, we don't have a virtual destructor anyway.) However, see the helper function unref_delete(). User code should avoid using ref() and unref() directly, which can result in missed reference counts. Instead, let a PointerTo object manage the reference counting automatically. This function is const, even though it changes the object, because generally fiddling with an object's reference count isn't considered part of fiddling with the object. An object might be const in other ways, but we still need to accurately count the number of references to it. The return value is true if the new reference count is nonzero, false if it is zero.