Growing Prickly pear Cactus in a container?

I have one growing in a container on my patio right now. It will spread to consume the entire container, but I don't advise allowing it to do so. It will become root bound and once it spreads to the edges of the container, it will be nasty and next to impossible to re-pot without breaking the pot to do so. You can let it get almost to the edges, however and that will take a couple of years. Yes, if you live in a climate or zone where you have hard freezes, snow or temperatures that get below freezing, I would take it in. They can suffer damage in cold temperatures, though I have seen them grow in the desert where they get snow, I also had mine get damaged when we had a hard freeze 2 years ago and lost some of the plant as a result.