passing vector to a pointer?

[XxAndyxX]

I have a project where I must use pointers to do a search on some accounts I've built up into a vector. My problem is whenever I try to pass the vector to a pointer I get an error. I've tried many different things but to no avail. Maybe one of you can tell me what I'm doing wrong?

This is basically what I'm trying to do:

#include <vector>
using namespace std;

double * func()
{
vector<double> vec;
return vec;
}

int main()
{double * p;
p=func();

return 0;
}

The error I get:test.cpp: In function `double* func()':
test.cpp:7: cannot convert `std::vector >' to `
double*' in return

[marinme]

double * func()
{
vector<double> vec;
return vec;
}

I don't think there is a typecast for double to vector. What you should do is use a pointer to a vector variable:

vector<double> * func()
{
     vector<double> vec;
     return vec;
}

That should work, but no guarantees since I didn't test it. Also, you may wish to change your double pointer in main() to a pointer to vector.

Now, if you are trying to use the pointer to double for data in the vector, you may wish to just use an iterator.

[XxAndyxX]

For this assignment we are required to use a pointer to search through an array (or vector) of accounts. Why doesn't this work?

vector<account> vec_account; //creates a vector of accounts
vector<account> * p; //creates a pointer to a vector of accounts
get_accounts(vec_account); //fills the vector with accounts
p=vec_account; //stores the base address of the vector into the pointer -but I get an error?  Logically it makes since to me...

ERROR I GET IS:
code.cpp:266: cannot convert `std::vector<account, std::allocator<account> >'
   to `std::vector<account, std::allocator<account> >*' in assignment

Here is the search algorithm I'll be using to search through the vector of accounts:

for (match=0; p <  (p+v.size()) && match==0; ++p)
  if (acct_num==p->read_acct_num()) match=1      //acct_num is given by the user
i--;
if (match==0) cout<<"\n\tACCOUNT NUMBER DOES NOT EXIST!\n";
else {

[marinme]

It should work just using
p = &vec_account;

[Dave Sinkula]

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
using namespace std;

vector<double> *func()
{
   static const double init[] = {1.0,1.5,2.0,3.3};
   vector<double> *vec = new vector<double>(init, init + sizeof init / sizeof *init);
   return vec;
}

int main()
{
   vector<double> *p = func();
   copy(p->begin(), p->end(), ostream_iterator<double>(cout, "\n"));
   return 0;
}

/* my output
1
1.5
2
3.3
*/