Re: weird list.begin() error

[Tommi Mäkitalo]

Andre Poenitz wrote:

> Thomas <tlann@technoeclectic.com> wrote:
>>> There is no point in having a `protected' data member if you allow
>>> direct access to it via the getList() function.
>>> 
>>> R'
>> ------------------------------
>> Thanks for pointing that out R'.  But this is only a demo program.  In
>> my actual program the pointer being returned is a const.
> 
> Btw: why return a const pointer and not a const reference?
> 
> Andre'
Even that is no good data-hiding. If you want to return a const reference to
something, you have to have that something. Better to define a typedef for
const_iterator and return a begin- and end-iterator:

class PlayList
{
  public:
    typedef list<string>::const_iterator const_iterator;
    const_iterator getListBegin() const  { return l.begin(); }
    const_iterator getListEnd() const    { return l.end(); }
  private:
    list<string> l;
};

That way you can redefine const_iterator if you decide to use e. g. a vector
instead of a list.

Tommi

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