Should I store entire objects, or pointers to objects in containers?
Designing a new system from scratch. I'll be using the STL to store lists and maps of certain long-live objects.
Question: Should I ensure my objects have copy constructors and store copies of objects within my STL containers, or is it generally better to manage the life & scope myself and just store the pointers to those objects in my STL containers?
I realize this is somewhat short on details, but I'm looking for the "theoretical" better answer if it exists, since I know both of these solutions are possible.
Two very obvious disadvantage to playing with pointers: 1) I must manage allocation/deallocation of these objects myself in a scope beyond the STL. 2) I cannot create a temp object on the stack and add it to my containers.
Is there anything else I'm missing?
Answer
Since people are chiming in on the efficency of using pointers.
If you're considering using a std::vector and if updates are few and you often iterate over your collection and it's a non polymorphic type storing object "copies" will be more efficent since you'll get better locality of reference.
Otoh, if updates are common storing pointers will save the copy/relocation costs.