#return a

Generic way to return a whole collection

In C++, what is the best way to return a collection to client code without using iterators.

Let’s say iterators are ruled out because eg the collection is remote. I’d like a signature for a function that returns the collection in the most useful form possible.

By ‘best’, I mean the best trade-off between clarity and genericity.

My instinct was (where result.push_back(obj) is valid C++):

templa…