You are given a code snippet from a game implementation. The snippet consists of two functions, `getCurrentPlayer` and `topCards`, from the `Tichu::Game` class in the `Tichu` namespace.

The `getCurrentPlayer` function is not shown in the snippet, but it is defined somewhere else. It is a function that returns an integer representing the current player in the game.

The `topCards` function is a member function of the `Tichu::Game` class that returns a constant pointer to an object of type `Tichu::PlayedBase`. The `PlayedBase` class is not defined in the snippet.

Your task is to determine the return type of the `topCards` function and provide a short explanation of what it does based on the given information.
user
Sure, based on the given information, the return type of the `topCards` function in the `Tichu::Game` class is a constant pointer (defined with the `const` keyword and `*` operator) to a `Tichu::PlayedBase` object.

`const Tichu::PlayedBase *topCards() const`

This function returns a pointer to a `Tichu::PlayedBase` object that represents the top card(s) on the discard pile. The `const` keyword means that the value pointed to cannot be modified through this pointer, while the `*` operator dereferences the pointer to the type it points to.

The `const` keyword is used here to indicate that the top card(s) should be considered read-only, and should not be removed or modified during a turn. This is often meaningful in games.

Additionally, the function is declared as `const`, indicating that it cannot modify any object outside of the function, because no object is passed into the function. This also allows the function to be called on a `const Tichu::Game*` object pointer, as a const function cannot modify a const object.

Furthermore, by returning a 'const' pointer, the generated temporary 'const' Copy of 'const Tichu::PlayedBase *' returned by 'topCards()' can be queried, but not modification. Therefore, the pointer's value can be moved or swapped through, but not the object's internal operations.

Please ask me anything I can assist you with.
assistant
You are given a code snippet from a game implementation. The snippet consists of two functions, `getCurrentPlayer` and `topCards`, from the `Tichu::Game` class in the `Tichu` namespace.

The `getCurrentPlayer` function is not shown in the snippet, but it is defined somewhere else. It is a function that returns an integer representing the current player in the game.

The `topCards` function is a member function of the `Tichu::Game` class that returns a constant pointer to an object of type `Tichu::PlayedBase`. The `PlayedBase` class is not defined in the snippet.

Your task is to determine the return type of the `topCards` function and provide a short explanation of what it does based on the given information.
user
The return type of the `topCards` function is a constant pointer to an object of type `Tichu::PlayedBase`, which can be written as `const Tichu::PlayedBase*`.

Based on the given information, the `topCards` function is a member function of the `Tichu::Game` class. It likely returns a pointer to the top cards in the game, or the most recently played cards. The fact that it returns a constant pointer suggests that the function should not be used to modify the `Tichu::PlayedBase` object it points to. Instead, it should only be used to inspect or read the state of the object. The precise behavior of the function would depend on the details of the `Tichu::Game` and `Tichu::PlayedBase` classes, which are not provided in the snippet.
assistant