How to return a reference/pointer to an element of a vector?

Question

C++ / C#

We have a class (simplified):

class CUnit
{
public:
    bool FindElement(const string& search, CElement& result);
private:
    vector<CElement> mElements;
};

The FindElement function looks something like this:

bool CUnit::FindElement(const string & search, CElement& result)
{
    vector<CElement>::iterator it;

    for (it = mElements.begin(); it != mElements.end(); it++)
    {
        if ( <тут проверка соответствие критерию> )
        {
            result = *it;
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

With this approach, a copy of the element will be returned from the function.
But how to return a link/pointer to a vector element so that you can change the vector element itself (and not its copy)?

Answer 1

one.

bool FindElement(const string& search, CElement*& result);

2.CElement* FindElement(const string& search);