Accessors by value or reference?

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    Accessors by value or reference?

    Taking such a piece of code:

    template<class T>
    class Data
    {
    public:
    Data(T v) : value(v) {}

    T GetValue1() const { return value; }
    const T & GetValue2() const { return value; }
    private:
    T value;
    }

    GetValue1() and GetValue2() are both accessors to value. Which usage is
    better? GetValue1() type seems to me to be more common although I think that
    GetValue2() is more effective especially when value is a big class. Am I
    right?


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