Class variables: public access read-only, but private access read/write

Question

Whoopee, not working on that socket library for the moment. I\'m trying to educate myself a little more in C++.

With classes, is there a way to make a variable read-

Answer 1

While I think a getter function that returns const T& is the better solution, you can have almost precisely the syntax you asked for:

class myClass {
    private:
    int x_; // Note: different name than public, read-only interface

    public:
    void f() {
        x_ = 10; // Note use of private var
    }
    const int& x;
    myClass() : x_(42), x(x_) {} // must have constructor to initialize reference
};

int main() {
    myClass temp;

    // temp.x is const, so ...
    cout << temp.x << endl; // works
    // temp.x = 57;  // fails

}

EDIT: With a proxy class, you can get precisely the syntax you asked for:

class myClass {
public:

    template 
    class proxy {
        friend class myClass;
    private:
        T data;
        T operator=(const T& arg) { data = arg; return data; }
    public:
        operator const T&() const { return data; }
    };

    proxy x;
    // proxy > y;


    public:
    void f() {
        x = 10; // Note use of private var
    }
};

temp.x appears to be a read-write int in the class, but a read-only int in main.