Cast an iterator of a vector of shared_ptr type

Question

How can I cast an iterator of a vector of shared_ptr type? Consider following example:

typedef boost::shared_ptr < MyClass > type_myClass;

vector< type_myClass > vect;
vector< type_myClass >::iterator itr = vect.begin();

while(itr != vect.end())
{
   //Following statement works, but I wish to rather cast this 
   //to MyClass and then call a function?
   (*itr)->doSomething(); 
}

Answer 1

You do not want to cast , but rather extract a reference to the object:

MyClass & obj = *(*it); // dereference iterator, dereference pointer
obj.doSomething();

Answer 2

You can simply grab a reference by de-referencing it again.

MyClass& ref = **itr;

And then cast it or whatever however you'd like.

Answer 3

You can use the method get() , according to the docs :

T * get() const; // never throws
Returns: the stored pointer.

It means you can do:

type_myClass* ptr =  *itr.get();    
ptr->doSomething();