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Quick Q: How do I allow iteration on an internal vector without exposing the vector?--StackExchange

By Patrick Niedzielski | Dec 8, 2014 12:34 PM | Tags: intermediate

Quick A: By exposing wrapped iterators in your interface.

From Programmers StackExchange, StackOverflow's sister site:

Allow iteration of an internal vector without leaking the implementation

I have a class that represents a list of people.

class AddressBook
{
public:
  AddressBook();

private:
  std::vector<People> people;
}
I want to allow clients to iterate over the vector of people. The first thought I had was simply: 
std::vector<People> & getPeople { return people; }
However, I do not want to leak the implementation details to the client. I may want to maintain certain invariants when the vector is modified, and I lose control over these invariants when I leak the implementation.
What's the best way to allow iteration without leaking the internals?

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Gvidon said on Dec 9, 2014 02:41 AM:

What about a simple for_each member function?
Like:


struct S

{

template<typename Func>

void for_each(Func f)

{

  for (const auto &i: m_vec)

    f(i);

}



std::vector<int> m_vec;

};

Details may vary, of course