Compiler/TMS320C6745: STL vector for C++11

The type returned by the vector member function begin() is a 'random access iterator', which does not immediately allow access to the data contained within the vector.

However, C++03 does provide the 'front' function, which returns a reference to the first element of the vector.

Because vectors guarantee contiguous storage for its elements, the address of vector::front() can be used as a pointer into the data stored within. For example:

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

int main() {
    // Initialize a simple vector
    std::vector<int> v;
    v.push_back(1);
    v.push_back(2);
    v.push_back(3);
    v.push_back(4);

    // Extract a reference to the first element in the vector
    int &ra = v.front();
    // Get the address of the first element in the vector
    int *pa = &ra;

    for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
    {
        // Print the value and address of each element
        int val = *pa;
        size_t addr = (size_t)(pa++);
        cout << addr << " " << val << endl;
    }
}

Do beware, if the element type of the vector ever becomes a more complicated type, such as a class, there can be issues with the above example, since that class could overload the unary address-of (&) operator so that it does not return a pointer to itself.

As a final aside, you could create a helper in your own code to provide a shortcut for this operation:

namespace ti_helpers {
    template <typename E>
    E *data(std::vector<E> &vec) {
        return &(vec.front());
    }
}