I\'m looking for a proper name of a class template with the following features:

Question

I'm looking for a proper name of a class template with the following features:

It's interface would look something like this, where Foo is a placeholder for the name I'm looking for.

template<typename T>
struct Foo
{
    T* operator->();
    T* operator*();
}
So, it imitates a pointer to an object, much like std::unique_ptr<> and std::shared_ptr<> do. Unlike them, having a Foo<T> to an object doesn't imply ownership over this object. Everything Foo<T> does is provide a pointer to this object and, this is the important part, once the object Foo<T> points to is deleted both operators return nullptr instead of the now invalid pointer.

I'm looking for a descriptive name for this class. Maybe it has intersecting semantics with a well defined pattern I am not aware of?

Explanation / Answer

It's a weak pointer.

It's common in GC languages for cached values that are allowed to be deleted and the map that holds it can detect it and recreate it.

C++ has a weak_ptr that works in conjunction with shared_ptr. You can assign a shared_ptr to a weak_ptr and get the shared_ptr from it again later with lock as long as the last shared_ptr hasn't been destroyed yet, after it has then lock returns a shared_ptr that holds a null pointer.

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