C++ member variable aliases?

Question

I'm pretty sure this is possible, because I'm pretty sure I've seen it done. I think it is awesome, but I will gladly accept answers along the lines of "this is a terrible idea because ____".

Say we have a basic struct.

struct vertex
{
    float x, y, z;
};

Now, I want to implement aliases on these variables.

vertex pos;
vertex col;
vertex arr;

pos.x = 0.0f; pos.y = 0.5f; pos.z = 1.0f;
col.r = 0.0f; col.g = 0.5f; col.b = 1.0f;
arr[0] = 0.0f; arr[1] = 0.5f; arr[2] = 1.0f;

Ideally the third syntax would be indistinguishable from an array. That is, if I sent arr as a reference parameter to a function expecting an array of floats into which it will store data (eg many of the OpenGL glGet functions), it would work fine.

What do you think? Possible? Possible but stupid?

Answer 1

What I would do is make accessors:

struct Vertex {
    float& r() { return values[0]; }
    float& g() { return values[1]; }
    float& b() { return values[2]; }

    float& x() { return values[0]; }
    float& y() { return values[1]; }
    float& z() { return values[2]; }

    float  operator [] (unsigned i) const { return this->values_[i]; }
    float& operator [] (unsigned i)       { return this->values_[i]; }
    operator float*() const { return this->values_; }

private:
    float[3] values_;
}