vector<A> vs vector<A*> vs vector<shared_ptr<A> > in C++

Question

I have a class A which is neither copy-constructable nor assignable. Now I want another class B to hold a vector of A objects. It is also clear that B holds the ownership of these objects.

As I see it, there are (at least) three options:

1. use vector<A>
2. use vector<A*>
3. use vector<shared_ptr<A> >

Is it right that 1. does not work because A is not copy constructable / assignable?

I don't like 2. because I have to make sure that I delete the pointers again.

If I use 3. I feel like this does not clearly represent that B is the owner of the A objects. Also I run into the issue that if I want users of B to delete pointers from this vector they need to pass the element they want to delete by shared_ptr<A> , right?

What would be a clean design decision in this case? Are there any good references on this?

Answer 1

1. Correct; A needs to be copy-assignable and copy-constructible to be used with std::vector , but from C++11 on, this depends very much on the operations you need to use on the vector.
2. I agree, I would not use raw pointers anymore unless I had a very compelling reason (and this isn't one in my opinion).
3. Have you considered unique_ptr ? There's a nice blog post on that option.