Question

Suppose I’m writing a C++ staff management system with STL

I have an entity class called StaffMember:

class StaffMember
{
  //
}

and a repository called Staff:

class Staff
{
  private:
    std::vector<StaffMember> staffMembers;
}

How do I know if I should declare staffMembers as a std::vector<StaffMember> or std::vector<StaffMember>*?

As a pointer, I would need to delete it inside ~Staff(), otherwise I would not.

Both will work, but the question is, which one do I choose and is there a general rule I can use when this question pops up in the future?

Answer 1

Typically by value (std::vector<StaffMember>), unless you need to share it. Even if you do need to share it, a smart pointer is much better than a raw pointer.

Compilation firewalls are an exception (e.g. PIMPL).