CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++vectorstl
RobertW
RobertW

Reputation: 103

access to a std::vector contained by another class

I am still relatively new to C++, learning as I go, and I'm confused as to what is the 'best' way to expose the vector to its consumers. I'm not worried about performance.

I have a class that contains a vector of raw data. I have other classes that need to consume and process that vector.

From reading other posts here I'm not sure whether to return a const reference to the vector or expose const iterators as none of the consumers will modify the vector.

Is one way better than the other? Are there other options or other things to consider ?

typedef std::vector<int> RawNumberContainer;
typedef std::vector<int>::const_iterator RawNumberIterator;

class RawData
{
public:
  RawData();

  void addNumber(int number)
  {
    rawNumbers.push_back(number);
  }

  // this?
  RawNumberContainer getRawNumbers() { return rawNumbers; }

  // or this?
  const RawNumberContainer& getRawNumbersConstReference() { return rawNumbers; }

  // or this?
  RawNumberIterator getRawNumbersBeginning() { return rawNumbers.begin(); }
  RawNumberIterator getRawNumbersEnd() { return rawNumbers.begin(); }


private:
  RawNumberContainer rawNumbers;
};

class Something;
class RawDataConsumer
{
public:
  // ??
  Something* processRawData(RawNumberContainer&);

  // ??
  Something* processRawData(const RawNumberContainer&);

  // ??
  Something* processRawData(RawNumberIterator begin, RawNumberIterator end);
};

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1022

Answers (2)

herolover
herolover

Reputation: 803

It:

const RawNumberContainer& getRawNumbersConstReference() const { return rawNumbers; }

And it:

Something* processRawData(const RawNumberContainer&);

Upvotes: 1

Iosif Murariu
Iosif Murariu

Reputation: 2054

You can use:

RawNumberContainer getRawNumbers() const { return rawNumbers; }

This way you'll make sure you can't edit the vector (only read-only access) and spare you of another variable being manually declared in your code.

Upvotes: 0

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