auto&& variable's are not rvalue reference

Question

Why auto&& is not rvalue reference?

Widget&& var1 = Widget(); // rvalue reference
auto&& var2 = var1; //var2 not rvalue reference

below are rvalue reference example

void f(Widget&& param); // rvalue reference
Widget&& var1 = Widget(); // rvalue reference

Why var2 is not rvalue reference but f and var2 are rvalue references?

Answer 1

auto&& is a declaration's equivalent of forwarding references (with identical deduction rules). As such, it will be deduced to an lvalue reference when the initializer is an lvalue. However, var is an lvalue (as it is the name of a variable), hence var2 is an lvalue reference.

Answer 2

Once the type of the initializer has been determined, the compiler determines the type that will replace the keyword auto using the rules for template argument deduction from a function call (see template argument deduction#Other contexts for details). The keyword auto may be accompanied by modifiers, such as const or &, which will participate in the type deduction.

For example, given

const auto& i = expr;

The type of i is exactly the type of the argument u in an imaginary

template template<class U> 
void f(const U& u)

If the function call f(expr) was compiled.

In general , it can be think as below .

 template template<class U> 
    void f(paramtype u)

Therefore, auto&& may be deduced either as an lvalue reference or rvalue reference according to the initializer.

In your case , imaginary template would look like

 template template<class U> 
        void f(U&& var2){}
f(var1) 

Here ,var1 is named rvalue which is being treated as lvalue, so var2 will be deduced as lvalue .

Consider the following examples:

auto&& var2 = widget() ; //var2 is rvalue reference here .
int x=10;
const int cx=10;
auto&& uref1 = x; // x is int and lvalue, so uref1's type is int&
auto&& uref2 = cx; // cx is const int and lvalue,  so uref2's type is const int&
auto&& uref3 = 27; // 27 is int and rvalue,  so uref3's type is int&&