Question

I have a class that has a vector of objects. What do I need to do to return one of this objects and change it outside the class, keeping the changings? Is it possible to do with regular pointers? Is there a standard procedure? (And yes, my background is in Java.)

Answer 1

If you have std::vector where A is your class, you could return a std::vector::iterator.

class A {
  public: int a;
};

std::vector<A> v = ...;
std::vector<A>::iterator it = v.begin(); // access to the first element
it = v.begin() + 5; // access to the 5-th element (vector can do random access)
// 'it' can now be used elsewhere
it->a = 0; // changes are reflected in the object inside the vector
*it = A(); // changes the object hold by the vector

Beware, that iterators may be invalidated, if the vector changes!