You can safely bind a reference to a temporary object. The temporary object to which you bind the reference persists for the lifetime of the reference.

 class C {  int j;public:  C(int i) : j(i) {}};void main() {  const C& cr = C(5);//bind a reference to a temp; temp's destruction deferred to the end of the program  C c2 = cr; //use the bound reference safely}//temporary destroyed here along with its bound reference