(Re)named std::pair members

Question

Instead of writing town->first I would like to write town->name. Inline named accessors (Renaming first and second of a map iterator and Name

Answer 1

You can use pointer-to-member operators. There are a few alternatives. Here is the most straightforward.

typedef std::map< zipcode_t, std::string > zipmap_t;
static zipcode_t const (zipmap_t::value_type::*const zipcode)
                                              = &zipmap_t::value_type::first;
static std::string (zipmap_t::value_type::*const zipname)
                                              = &zipmap_t::value_type::second;

// Usage
zipmap_t::value_type my_map_value;
std::string &name = my_map_value.*zipname;

You can put the accessors for one pseudo-type into a dedicated namespace to separate them from other things. Then it would look like my_map_value.*zip::name. But, unless you really need to use a pair, it's probably easier to just define a new struct.