Question

This is a general question on programming style. Let’s say I have an object Line which has some methods and private variables Point point_a_ and Point point_b_. Let’s say that at some point I need to change the position of the two points. What programming style would you prefer between the following cases? They all do the same thing (or should do: I didn’t compile, but seems pretty straightforward).

CASE 1

Class Line {
public:
  Line(Point point_a, Point point_b) : point_a_(point_a), point_b_(point_b) {}

  void UpdatePoints(Point point_a, Point point_b) { 
    point_a_ = point_a; point_b_ = point_b;
  }

  double Distance();

private:
  Point point_a_;
  Point point_b_;
};

int main (int argc, char * const argv[]) {
  Point point_a(0,0,0);
  Point point_b(1,1,1);
  Line line(point_a,point_b);
  std::cout<<line.Distance()<<"\n";

  point_a.x = 1;
  line.UpdatePoints(point_a,point_b);
  std::cout<<line.Distance()<<"\n";
}

CASE 2

Class Line {
public:
  Line(Point point_a, Point point_b) : point_a_(point_a), point_b_(point_b) {}
  Point& point_a() { return point_a_; }
  Point& point_b() { return point_b_; }
  double Distance();

private:
  Point point_a_;
  Point point_b_;
};

int main (int argc, char * const argv[]) {
  Point point_a(0,0,0);
  Point point_b(1,1,1);
  Line line(point_a,point_b);
  std::cout<<line.Distance()<<"\n";

  line.point_a().x = 1;
  std::cout<<line.Distance()<<"\n";
}

CASE 3

Class Line {
public:
  Line(Point* point_a, Point* point_b) : point_a_(point_a), point_b_(point_b) {}

  double Distance();

private:
  Point* point_a_;
  Point* point_b_;
};

int main (int argc, char * const argv[]) {
  Point point_a(0,0,0);
  Point point_b(1,1,1);
  Line line(&point_a,&point_b);
  std::cout<<line.Distance()<<"\n";

  point_a.x = 1;
  std::cout<<line.Distance()<<"\n";
}

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

[EDIT] Speed is paramount in my software!

Answer 1

In this simple scenario I might just use public member variables.

Otherwise I would provide getters that return a const reference and matching setters.

class Line {
public:
    Line(const Point& p1, const Point&p2) : m_p1(p1), m_p2(p2) {}

    const Point& p1() const 
    { return m_p1; }

    const Point& p2() const
    { return m_p2; }

    void setP1(const Point& p1)
    { m_p1 = p1; }

    void setP2(const Point& p2)
    { m_p2 = p2; }

private:
    Point m_p1;
    Point m_p2;
};