Question

I am trying to create a function in a class that returns a const pointer to a map. Then in a different class, I can have a function that can accept the constant pointer, declare the iterator, and copy the contents of the map into a vector. This map class to vector class is a requirement of the exercise. I have never done ptrs to maps before and I don’t have a syntax that the compiler likes. Here is my function declaration in Map:

class WordCount
{
    public:
        WordCount();
        ~WordCount();
        void word_insert(std::string clean_word);
        void print_all();
        const std::map<std::string, int> * get_map();

    private:
        std::map<std::string, int> m_word_counts;
        std::map<std::string, int>::iterator m_it;
        std::pair<std::map<std::string, int>::iterator, bool> m_ret; 
};

But when I try to define the function as such (or many variations I have tried) I get a conversion error. What below needs to change?

const map<string, int > * WordCount::get_map()
{
    const map<string, int > *ptr = m_word_counts;
    return ptr;
}

—

Answer 1

const map<string, int > *ptr = &m_word_counts;