Do I really need to return Type :: size_type?

Question

I often have classes that basically just wrap around some STL container, for example:

class Foo {
public:
  typedef std::vector<whatever> Vec;
  typedef Vec::size_type size_type;
  const Vec& GetVec() { return vec_; }
  size_type size() { return vec_.size() }
private:
  Vec vec_;
};

I am not sure about the return size_type. Often some function calls size()and passes this value to another function, and it will use it and, possibly, pass it. Now everyone should include this Foo header, although I really just pass some size value, which should just be unsigned intanyway ...? What is the right thing here? Is it better to use size_typeeverywhere?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

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Answer 3

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Answer 4

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Answer 5

, , std::vector:

typedef std::vector<whatever> Foo_Vec;

class Foo : public Foo_Vec
{
public:
    const Foo_Vec &GetVec() { return (Foo_Vec&)*this; }
};

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