C++: Copy constructor: Use getters or access member vars directly?

Question

I have a simple container class with a copy constructor.

Do you recommend using getters and setters, or accessing the member variables directly?

public Container 
{
   public:
   Container() {}

   Container(const Container& cont)          //option 1
   { 
       SetMyString(cont.GetMyString());
   }

   //OR

   Container(const Container& cont)          //option 2
   {
      m_str1 = cont.m_str1;
   }

   public string GetMyString() { return m_str1;}       

   public void SetMyString(string str) { m_str1 = str;}

   private:

   string m_str1;
}

• In the example, all code is inline, but in our real code there is no inline code.

Update (29 Sept 09):

Some of these answers are well written however they seem to get missing the point of this question:

• this is simple contrived example to discuss using getters/setters vs variables

• initializer lists or private validator functions are not really part of this question. I'm wondering if either design will make the code easier to maintain and expand.

• Some ppl are focusing on the string in this example however it is just an example, imagine it is a different object instead.

• I'm not concerned about performance. we're not programming on the PDP-11

Answer 1

Do you anticipate how the string is returned, eg. white space trimmed, null checked, etc.? Same with SetMyString(), if the answer is yes, you are better off with access methods since you don't have to change your code in zillion places but just modify those getter and setter methods.