Question

So I have a scenario where there are classes inside classes so that the access to a particular variable or function:

stateMachine->data->poseEstimate->getData()
stateMachine->data->poseEstimate->setData()

Now this is totally legitimate but it looks convoluted and is hard to read. In the function i want to be able to do something like this:

typedef stateMachine->data->poseEstimate pose

pose->getData()
pose->setData()

which will make the code more readable. Obviously typedef wont work because it is for defining types. Is there an equal way that will allow me to do this?

Answer 1

In practice, I alias said object with a reference variable given a descriptive name relevant to the context it’s in:

PoseEstimateType& PoseEstimate = stateMachine->data->poseEstimate;
PoseEstimate->getData();
PoseEstimate->setData();

If your compiler supports the auto keyword, you can use an auto reference:

auto& PoseEstimate = stateMachine->data->poseEstimate;
PoseEstimate->getData();
PoseEstimate->setData();