From -1671786647998386064 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f78e5,8d7ae4b2a3e77f8b,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-08-07 20:22:31 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!kibo.news.demon.net!mutlu.news.demon.net!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk!devnull From: stefan_heinzmann@yahoo.com (Stefan Heinzmann) Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ Subject: Why is there no range type in the standard library? Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 03:22:27 +0000 (UTC) Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Lines: 49 Approved: fjh@cs.mu.oz.au (Fergus Henderson , moderator of comp.std.c++) Message-ID: <95e0e5ef.0308060330.28aefaae@posting.google.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: mail2news.demon.co.uk 1060312947 22633 10.0.0.1 (8 Aug 2003 03:22:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 03:22:27 +0000 (UTC) X-Received: from mulga.cs.mu.oz.au ([128.250.1.22]) by news.demon.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.12) id 19kxpi-0005su-00 for mail2news@news.news.demon.net; Fri, 08 Aug 2003 03:22:26 +0000 X-Received: from localhost (localhost [[UNIX: localhost]]) by mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU id NAA00362; Fri, 8 Aug 2003 13:22:23 +1000 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU: fjh set sender to devnull@stump.algebra.com using -f X-Path: comp-std-cpp-robomod!not-for-mail X-Robomod: STUMP, ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov) X-Delivered-To: std-c++@ucar.edu X-Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ X-NNTP-Posting-Date: 6 Aug 2003 11:30:55 GMT X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.7 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_01,FORGED_YAHOO_RCVD version=2.55 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.55 (1.174.2.19-2003-05-19-exp) Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.std.c++:20513 Hi all, this may have surfaced in the past, but I don't know what the current wisdom is, so please forgive me if I'm asking a FAQ and point me to the relevant docs. Given that the notion of an iterator range is rather fundamental in the standard library, I wonder why this wasn't turned into a class template in the STL. Something like this: template struct iterator_range { Iter begin, end; size_t size() const { return std::distance(begin,end); } bool empty() const { return begin == end; } bool operator==(const Iter& rhs) const { return (begin == rhs.begin) && (end == rhs.end); } // ... potentially more methods here }; template iterator_range range(const Iter& b, const Iter& e) { iterator_range res = { b,e }; return res; } Wouldn't that make the usage of standard algorithms and standard containers both easier and safer? Ideally, each container wouldn't just define its iterator type but also its iterator range type through a typedef. Algorithms operating on a range would not take two separate iterator arguments but a single range argument instead. Is this omission the result of a deliberate decision of the standards committee, and if so, what was the rationale? Or if not, is the addition of such a definition under consideration for the next version of the standard? Cheers Stefan --- [ comp.std.c++ is moderated. To submit articles, try just posting with ] [ your news-reader. If that fails, use mailto:std-c++@ncar.ucar.edu ] [ --- Please see the FAQ before posting. --- ] [ FAQ: http://www.jamesd.demon.co.uk/csc/faq.html ]