Question

I want to pass the whole set as an argument to a function, like the way we do for arrays (i.e &array[0]). I am not able to figure out how to get the pointer to the raw data for a set.

Answer 1

It is not possible to do it in the same way as an array because std::set is not required to have it’s data arranged in a contiguous block of memory. It is a binary tree so it most likely consists of linked nodes. But you can pass it by reference, or use the begin() and end() iterators.

template <typename T>
void foo(const std::set<T>& s);

template <typename Iterator>
void bar(Iterator first, Iterator last);

std::set<int> mySet = ....;
foo(mySet);
bar(mySet.begin(), mySet.end());