Question: I am working on some code, where I encountered a situation similar to this one:

```
struct Bar;

struct Foo{
    friend struct Bar;
private:
    Foo(){}
    void f(){}
    void g(){}
};

struct Bar {
   Foo* f;
   Bar()  { f = new Foo();}
   ~Bar() { delete f;}
};

int main(){
  Bar b;
}

```

I would prefer to have `Bar` not as `friend` of `Foo`, because besides `Foo`s constructor `Bar` does not need access to any of `Foo`s private methods (and thus should not have access). Is there a way to allow only `Bar` to create `Foo`s without making them friends?

**PS**: realized that the question might not be 100% clear. I don't mind if it is via friends or not, just the fact that all `Bar` has access to all private methods is disturbing me (which is usually the case with `friends`) and that is what I want to avoid. Fortunately none of the answers given so far had a problem with that lousy formulation.

Answer: 
This is precisely what the [attorney-client](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/More_C%2B%2B_Idioms/Friendship_and_the_Attorney-Client) idiom is for:

```
struct Bar;

struct Foo {
    friend struct FooAttorney;
private:
    Foo(){}
    void f(){}
    void g(){}
};

class FooAttorney {
  static Foo* makeFoo() { return new Foo; }
  friend struct Bar;
};

struct Bar {
   Foo* f;
   Bar()  { f = FooAttorney::makeFoo();}
   ~Bar() { delete f;}
};

int main(){
  Bar b;
}

```

In a code imitates life fashion, the class declares an attorney that will mediate the secrets it's willing to share with the selected parties.
If you do not want to introduce another class, you can shrink the circle of friendship and make `Bar`'s constructor `Foo`'s friend. It requires `Bar`'s definition to be available to `Foo`, and it still gives `Bar`'s constructor unrestricted access to `Foo`'s private implementation:

```
struct Foo;

struct Bar {
   Foo* f;
   Bar();
   ~Bar();
};

struct Foo{
    friend Bar::Bar();
private:
    Foo(){}
    void f(){}
    void g(){}
};

Bar::Bar() : f(new Foo()) {
}

Bar::~Bar() {
    delete f;
}

```

This does not achieve exactly what you want, but it makes friendship a lot more targeted.