Give access to encapsulated container

Question

class X {
  public:
    typedef std::list Container;

    // (1)
    const Container& GetElements() const;

    // (2)
    Container::iterator Element         


        

Answer 1

2 and 3 really aren't distinct options. However, 3 as written is pretty much useless. No STL algorithm will use CustomIterator::next. For STL compatibility, you'd write:

// mix of 2 and 3
CustomIterator begin();
CustomIterator end();

and give CustomIterator the standard operator++ and operator*