Professional C++, 5th Edition

17Understanding Iterators and the Ranges Library

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Details on iterators
• How to use stream iterators
• What iterator adapters are, and how to use the standard iterator adapters
• The power of the ranges library consisting of ranges, range-based algorithms, projections, views, and factories

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Chapter 16, “Overview of the C++ Standard Library,” introduces the Standard Library, describes its basic philosophy, and provides an overview of the provided functionality. This chapter begins a more-in-depth tour of the Standard Library by covering the ideas behind iterators used throughout a big part of the library. It also discusses the available stream iterators and iterator adapters. The second part of the chapter discusses the C++20 ranges library, a powerful new addition to the Standard Library that allows for more functional-style programming: you write code that specifies what you want to accomplish instead of how.

ITERATORS

The Standard Library uses the iterator pattern to provide a generic abstraction for accessing the elements of a container. Each container provides a container-specific iterator, which is a glorified pointer that knows how to iterate over the elements of that specific container, i.e., an iterator supports ...