Give access to encapsulated container

Question

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

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

    // (2)
    Container::iterator Element         


        

Answer 1

I can't think of much cleaner methods; you might consider the lightweight (4) solution giving access with

const Container& container() const { return m_container; }

I would prefer (3) since the container type becomes fully encapsulated, i.e. your type does not necessarily require inclusion of and you can change the container type without recompiling depending modules.