Bare pointers can sometimes be used to iterate through the elements of a container:
#include #include using namespace std;void hack(){ vector vi; vi.push_back(5); int *p = vi.begin();//bad programming practice, although it may work *p = 6; //assign vi[0] cout< However, using bare pointers instead of iterators is poor programming practice and should be avoided. It undermines the very idea of information hiding and encapsulation. An iterator may not be represented as a pointer, and even if it is, this implementation detail can change in future versions of the library. The correct form of the previous code excerpt is:
void nohack(){ vector vi; vi.push_back(5); vector::iterator p = vi.begin(); //correct *p = 6; //assign vi[0] cout< 
