Should I store entire objects, or pointers to objects in containers?

by

Since people are chiming in on the efficency of using pointers.

If you’re considering using a std::vector and if updates are few and you often iterate over your collection and it’s a non polymorphic type storing object “copies” will be more efficent since you’ll get better locality of reference.

Otoh, if updates are common storing pointers will save the copy/relocation costs.

More Related Contents:

  1. How to avoid memory leaks when using a vector of pointers to dynamically allocated objects in C++?
  2. How are iterators and pointers related?
  3. std::map, pointer to map key value, is this possible?
  4. Can raw pointers be used instead of iterators with STL algorithms for containers with linear storage?
  5. C++ inserting unique_ptr in map
  6. Why do i have a random result on this template?
  7. Regular cast vs. static_cast vs. dynamic_cast [duplicate]
  8. How do I use arrays in C++?
  9. What is the difference between const int*, const int * const, and int const *?
  10. What is the easiest way to initialize a std::vector with hardcoded elements?
  11. Should I use static_cast or reinterpret_cast when casting a void* to whatever
  12. Initializing a static std::map in C++
  13. Best way to extract a subvector from a vector?
  14. Returning arrays from a function in c++
  15. Does vector::erase() on a vector of object pointers destroy the object itself?
  16. Difference Between *(Pointer + Index) and Pointer[]
  17. Is there any reason to check for a NULL pointer before deleting?
  18. How to update an existing element of std::set?
  19. Reorder vector using a vector of indices [duplicate]
  20. Is the C++ std::set thread-safe?
  21. Can I Allocate a specific memory address using pointers in c++?
  22. Why is the STL so heavily based on templates instead of inheritance?
  23. Why doesn’t std::string provide implicit conversion to char*?
  24. How to sort an STL vector?
  25. How can I make the map::find operation case insensitive?
  26. Is it legal/well-defined C++ to call a non-static method that doesn’t access members through a null pointer?
  27. In C/C++, is char* arrayName[][] a pointer to a pointer to a pointer OR a pointer to a pointer?
  28. Why is arr and &arr the same?
  29. list of polymorphic objects
  30. Is a Linked-List implementation without using pointers possible or not?

Leave a Comment