Question

I want to use std::vector for dynamically allocating memory. The scenario is:

int neededLength = computeLength(); // some logic here

// this will allocate the buffer     
std::vector<TCHAR> buffer( neededLength );

// call a function that accepts TCHAR* and the number of elements
callFunction( &(buffer[0]), buffer.size() );

The code above works, but this &(buffer[0]) looks ugly. Is there a more elegant way to achieve the same?

Answer 1

Well, you can remove one set of parens:

&buffer[0]

but that is the common, idiomatic way of doing it. If it really offends you, I suppose you could use a template – something like:

template <typename T> 
T * StartOf( std::vector <T> & v ) {
    return &v[0];
}