Re: Using "sizeof()" on first element of empty STL container?

I want to write a function that returns the size of an element
of STL containers of any type (vector, list, etc.).

What I've come up is this:

------------------ snip -----------------------
template<class myType>
size_t sizeOfElem(myType & thecontainer)
{
  return sizeof(thecontainer.front());
}
------------------ snap -----------------------

I can now use that function on any STL container that supports
front:

------------------ snip -----------------------
{
  vector<int32_t> v;

  cout << sizeOfElem(v) << endl;
}
------------------ snap -----------------------

It works, even with empty containers (at least it does not
crash on me and gives back the correct size). But I am worried
about using front() when the container is empty.

Now my questions: could this have side effects? Are there any
better ways to do that?