Are get and set functions popular with C++ programmers?

Question

I\'m from the world of C# originally, and I\'m learning C++. I\'ve been wondering about get and set functions in C++. In C# usage of these are quite popular, and tools like

Answer 1

In your example:

class Foo
{
public:
    const std::string GetBar(); // Should this be const, not sure?

You probably mean this:

std::string GetBar() const;

Putting the const at the end means "This function doesn't modify the Foo instance it is called on", so in a way it marks it as a pure getter.

Pure getters occur frequently in C++. An example in std::ostringstream is the str() function. The Standard library often follows a pattern of using the same function name for a pair of getter/setter functions - str being an example again.

As to whether it's too much work to type out, and is it worth it - that seems an odd question! If you need to give clients access to some information, provide a getter. If you don't, then don't.