Give access to encapsulated container

Question

class X {
  public:
    typedef std::list Container;

    // (1)
    const Container& GetElements() const;

    // (2)
    Container::iterator Element         


        

Answer 1

A mix of (2) and (3) would probably be what I'd do :

class X {
  public :
    typedef std::list ElementContainer;
    typedef ElementContainer::size_type ElementSizeType;
    typedef ElementContainer::iterator ElementIterator;
    typedef ElementContainer::const_iterator ConstElementIterator;

    ElementIterator elementBegin() { return m_container.begin(); }
    ElementIterator elementEnd() { return m_container.end(); }

    ConstElementIterator elementBegin() const { return m_container.begin(); }
    ConstElementIterator elementEnd() const { return m_container.end(); }

    ElementSizeType elementSize() const { return m_container.size(); }

  private :
    ElementContainer m_container;
};

It still leaves room to write custom iterators (by changing the typedefs), but as long as the ones provided by the container are ok, they can be used.