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SGI explanation: http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/stack.html One might wonder why pop() returns void, instead of value_type. That is, why must one use top() and pop() to examine and remove the top element, instead of combining the two in a single member function? In fact, there is a good reason for this design. If pop() returned the top element, it would have to return by value rather than by reference: return by reference would create a dangling pointer. Return by value, however, is inefficient: it involves at least one redundant copy constructor call. Since it is impossible for pop() to return a value in such a way as to be both efficient and correct, it is more sensible for it to return no value at all and to require clients to use top() to inspect the value at the top of the stack.
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std::stack < T > is a template. If pop() returned the top element, it would have to return by value rather than by reference as per the of above explanation. That means, at the caller side it must be copied in an another T type of object. That involves a copy constructor or copy assignment operator call. What if this type T is sophisticated enough and it throws an exception during copy construction or copy assignment? In that case, the rvalue, i.e. the stack top (returned by value) is simply lost and there is no other way to retrieve it from the stack as the stack's pop operation is successfully completed!
the 2nd point might not be the reason of the initial design as STL is introduced into C++ before exceptions; it's a good point to make though.