How get a reference to a QList

[franco.amato]

Hi to all,
in my program I need to use a QList<MyStructure *> list, so I declared one in the private section of my class. I also need a method to get it ( a reference to it ).
This is some code:

struct ScanRec;
 
class VistaIrisMatching : public QDialog
{
    Q_OBJECT
 
public:
    VistaIrisMatching(QWidget *parent = 0, Qt::WFlags flags = 0);
    ~VistaIrisMatching();
    Ui::VistaIrisMatchingClass ui;
    m_scanRecList& getScanRecList(); // <------ get a reference to the list
 
public slots:
     void onUpdateDisplay( IplImage* );
     bool onLoadDBRecords();
 
private:
    CVistaCamera* m_vistaCamera;
    QSqlDatabase IrisDB;
    QTimer* m_timer;
    QList<ScanRec *> m_scanRecList; // <------- the list
};

struct ScanRec;

class VistaIrisMatching : public QDialog
{
    Q_OBJECT

public:
    VistaIrisMatching(QWidget *parent = 0, Qt::WFlags flags = 0);
    ~VistaIrisMatching();
    Ui::VistaIrisMatchingClass ui;
    m_scanRecList& getScanRecList(); // <------ get a reference to the list

public slots:
     void onUpdateDisplay( IplImage* );
     bool onLoadDBRecords();

private:
    CVistaCamera* m_vistaCamera;
    QSqlDatabase IrisDB;
    QTimer* m_timer;
    QList<ScanRec *> m_scanRecList; // <------- the list
};

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I don't understand why it doesn't compile and the compiler says that the error is in the

m_scanRecList& getScanRecList();

m_scanRecList& getScanRecList();

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Where am I wrong?
Best Regards

[high_flyer]

This:

m_scanRecList& getScanRecList();

m_scanRecList& getScanRecList();

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Makes no syntactical nor logical sense.
When you declare a method, you declare a return TYPE to it, and you don't use a variable for that.

QList<ScanRec *>& getScanRecList(); // <------ get a reference to the list

QList<ScanRec *>& getScanRecList(); // <------ get a reference to the list

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[franco.amato]

But then I would be sure that the returned reference it to my list

---

Added after 5 minutes:

Sorry I noticed now that I did a very big mistake mmmm my poor c++.
Thanx again

[Lykurg]

If you return a non const reference, you could make the list public and skip the getter method.

[SixDegrees]

If you return a non const reference, you could make the list public and skip the getter method.

Quite correct. It makes no sense to return a reference to an internal private object through an accessor function, since you're effectively granting public access to the object by doing so.