C++ concepts: ForwardIterator

 

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Technical Specifications

 

C++ concepts

Basic
DefaultConstructible CopyAssignable CopyConstructible	MoveAssignable (C++11) MoveConstructible (C++11) Destructible
Layout
TrivialType (C++11) TriviallyCopyable (C++11)	StandardLayoutType (C++11) PODType
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DefaultInsertable (C++11) CopyInsertable (C++11) MoveInsertable (C++11)	EmplaceConstructible (C++11) Erasable (C++11)
Iterator
Iterator OutputIterator InputIterator	ForwardIterator BidirectionalIterator RandomAccessIterator ContiguousIterator (C++17)
Stream I/O
FormattedInputFunction UnformattedInputFunction	FormattedOutputFunction UnformattedOutputFunction
Random Numbers
SeedSequence (C++11) RandomNumberEngine (C++11)	RandomNumberDistribution (C++11) UniformRandomNumberGenerator (C++11) RandomNumberEngineAdaptor (C++11)
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Other
CharTraits pos_type off_type Clock (C++11) BitmaskType	UnaryTypeTrait (C++11) BinaryTypeTrait (C++11) TransformationTrait (C++11) TrivialClock (C++11) LiteralType (C++11)

 

A ForwardIterator is an Iterator that can read data from the pointed-to element.

Unlike InputIterator and OutputIterator, it can be used in multipass algorithms.

Requirements

The type It satisfies ForwardIterator if

• The type It satisfies InputIterator
• The type It satisfies DefaultConstructible
• Objects of the type It provide multipass guarantee described below
• The type std::iterator_traits<It>::reference must be exactly

• T& if It satisfies OutputIterator (It is mutable)
• const T& otherwise (It is constant),

(where T is the type denoted by std::iterator_traits<It>::value_type)

• Equality and inequality comparison is defined over all iterators for the same underlying sequence and the value initialized-iterators (since C++14).

And, given

• i, dereferenceable iterator of type It
• reference, the type denoted by std::iterator_traits<It>::reference

The following expressions must be valid and have their specified effects

Expression	Return type	Equivalent expression	Notes
i++	It	It ip=i; ++i; return ip;
*i++	reference

A mutable ForwardIterator is a ForwardIterator that additionally satisfies the OutputIterator requirements.

Multipass guarantee

Given a and b, dereferenceable iterators of type It

• If a and b compare equal (a == b is contextually convertible to true) then either they are both non-dereferenceable or *a and *b are references bound to the same object
• Assignment through a mutable ForwardIterator iterator cannot invalidate the iterator (implicit due to reference defined as a true reference)
• incrementing a copy of a does not change the value read from a (formally, either It is a raw pointer type or the expression (void)++It(a), *a is equivalent to the expression *a)
• a == b implies ++a == ++b

Singular iterators A value-initialized ForwardIterator behaves like the past-the-end iterator of some unspecified empty container: it compares equal to all value-initialized ForwardIterators of the same type.

(since C++14)

See also

• Iterator library