Hi All, I have a C++ library which I want to export to python using pyste. There are several sequence class in C++ library which overloads [] operator and that is the only way to access an element in sequence. Current pyste implementation (Release version 1_32_0) doesn't handle operator [], so I modified ClassExporter.py to generate the .defs for __getitem__ and __setitem__ in the pyste generated .cpp. Following the template function for getitem and pyste modification. It seems that for C++ struct/class I have to return the element by reference and for other C++ types (basic/enums) I need to return the element by value. I learnt this by experiments and from boost/python/suite/indexing/vector_indexing_suite.hpp . Now the problem I run into here is this. I need to add return_internal_reference< 1 > in generated .def in case when getitem function return element by reference. Now in python I don't know a way to figure out whether IndexOp_PysteWrapper_getitem function will return element by reference or by value, since I don't know if the return type of operator[] is a C++ class/structure or basic data type. Any solution/hints for solution to this problem would be a great help. Template Function: template <typename T> typename boost::mpl::if_<is_class<T>,T&,T>::type IndexOp_PysteWrapper_getitem(TAO_Unbounded_Sequence<T>& seq, int index) { if (index < 0) { index = seq.length() + index; // negative index } if (index >= seq.length()) { PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IndexError, "index out of range"); throw_error_already_set(); } return seq[index]; } Pyste Modification: Added folloing function for handling index operator in ClassExporter. This function is called when operator[] is found in the class being exported. Depending on return type of the operator[] (is it const or not), I determine whether setitem and getitem should be supported. def HandleIndexOperator(operator): if operator.result.const: self.Add('inside', '.def("__getitem__", &IndexOp_PysteWrapper_getitem<%s>)' % (operator.result.name)) else: self.Add('inside', '.def("__setitem__", &IndexOp_PysteWrapper_setitem<%s>)' % (operator.result.name)) Thanks, Parixit