Of course you can:
class MyClass
{
int x_;
public:
int x() const { return x_; }
};
If you don’t want to make a copy (for integers, there is no overhead), do the following:
class MyClass
{
std::vector<double> v_;
public:
decltype(v)& v() const { return v_; }
};
or with C++98:
class MyClass
{
std::vector<double> v_;
public:
const std::vector<double>& v() const { return v_; }
};
This does not make any copy. It returns a reference to const.