C++ named requirements: LegacyIterator
The LegacyIterator requirements describe types that can be used to identify and traverse the elements of a container.
LegacyIterator is the base set of requirements used by other iterator types: LegacyInputIterator, LegacyOutputIterator, LegacyForwardIterator, LegacyBidirectionalIterator, and LegacyRandomAccessIterator. Iterators can be thought of as an abstraction of pointers.
All the categories of iterators require only those functions that are realizable for a given category in constant time (amortized). Therefore, requirement tables and concept definitions(since C++20) for the iterators do not specify complexity.
Contents |
[edit] Requirements
The type It
satisfies LegacyIterator if
- The type
It
satisfies CopyConstructible, and - The type
It
satisfies CopyAssignable, and - The type
It
satisfies Destructible, and - The type
It
satisfies Swappable, and - std::iterator_traits<It> has member typedefs:
value_type
,(until C++20)difference_type
,reference
,pointer
, anditerator_category
, and - Given r, an lvalue of type
It
, the following expressions must be valid and have their specified effects:
Expression | Return Type | Precondition |
---|---|---|
*r | unspecified | r is dereferenceable |
++r | It& | r is incrementable (the behavior of the expression ++r is defined) |
ConceptFor the definition of std::iterator_traits, the following exposition-only concept is defined.
where the exposition-only concept __Referenceable<T> is satisfied if and only if T& is a valid type (in particular, |
(since C++20) |
[edit] Notes
Note on terminology: The following table shows the names used on this site and corresponding C++ Standard names (with the same meaning). The "Legacy" (and “Cpp17”) prefix emphasizes compatibility with pre-C++20 standards and is used to distinguish these requirements from the new iterator concepts introduced with C++20.
- ↑ LegacyContiguousIterator category was only formally specified in C++17, but the iterators of std::vector, std::basic_string, std::array, and std::valarray, as well as pointers into C arrays are often treated as a separate category in pre-C++17 code.
[edit] Defect reports
The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.
DR | Applied to | Behavior as published | Correct behavior |
---|---|---|---|
LWG 2437 | C++98 | *r is required to be reference
|
not required for output iterators |
LWG 3420 | C++20 | the exposition-only concept checks copyable first
|
copyable is checked only if the requires-expression yields true
|
[edit] See also
(C++20) |
specifies that objects of a type can be incremented and dereferenced (concept) |
Iterator library | provides definitions for iterators, iterator traits, adaptors, and utility functions |