Benefits of using reference_wrapper instead of raw pointer in containers?

Question

What benefits has using std::reference_wrapper as template parameter of containers instead of raw pointers? That is std::vector

Answer 1

C references are really problematic while working with templates. If you are "lucky" enough to compile code with reference as a template parameter you might have problems with code that would work (for some reason) as follows:

template f(T x) { g(x); }
template g(T x) { x++; }

Then even if you call f(x) it will call g. But reference_wrapper works fine with templates.

As also mentioned earlier - you will have problems with compiling things like vector, but vector> works fine.