Best way to encapsulate the implementation using iterators - c++

I am developping a Grpah class using a QList of nodes. Each node contains a QList of adjacent.
It is sure useful to be able to loop through the nodes of the graph and through the neighborhood of every node, but it seems that having a function QList<Node*> getNodes and QList<Node*> getAdjacentwould not be very smart (because I would show that I use a QList).
So I decided to have an iterator for eah of my classes. Very simple implementation:
template<class T>
class Graph {
private:
QList< Node<T>* > _nodes;
public:
typedef typename QList< Node<T>* >::const_iterator const_iterator;
typedef typename QList< Node<T>* >::iterator iterator;
iterator begin() {return _nodes.begin();}
const_iterator begin() const {return _nodes.begin();}
const_iterator cbegin() const {return _nodes.cbegin();}
const_iterator cend() const {return _nodes.cend();}
const_iterator constBegin() const {return _nodes.constBegin();}
const_iterator constEnd() const {return _nodes.constEnd();}
iterator end() {return _nodes.end();}
const_iterator end() const {return _nodes.end();}
Graph();
/*other methods*/
};
But then I have the exact same code for my Node template class. That code works, and seems to me a good idea.
So I id something a little bit messy:
template<class T>
class Iterable {
protected:
T* _data;
public:
Iterable() {_data = new T();}
typedef typename T::const_iterator const_iterator;
typedef typename T::iterator iterator;
iterator begin() {return _data->begin();}
const_iterator begin() const {return _data->begin();}
const_iterator cbegin() const {return _data->cbegin();}
const_iterator cend() const {return _data->cend();}
const_iterator constBegin() const {return _data->constBegin();}
const_iterator constEnd() const {return _data->constEnd();}
iterator end() {return _data->end();}
const_iterator end() const {return _data->end();}
};
and then:
template<class T>
class Node : public Iterable< QList< Node<T>* > >{/*code*/};
template<class T>
class Graph : public Iterable< QList< Node<T>* > >{/*code*/};
Is this the best way to do this? Because it looks nasty, although its completely refactored...
This part is a duplicate question from. As other users pointed out in the comments, I shall stick to one question: the one above this.
*Also, now I need to type typenamewhen trying to get an interator type inside Graph or Node, but not outside. That is to say:
template
void Graph::example() const {
typename Graph::const_iterator it;
//If i remove typename I get: error: need ‘typename’ before ‘Graph::const_iterator’ because ‘Graph’ is a dependent scope
}
whereas outside of the class I can do:
Graph::iterator it = g.begin();
Why is this?*
Thanks!

Related

C++ Custom Iterator

I have two classes that implement a data structure similar to a linked list. We'll call them Node and List. To trim the fat of all the constructors and other methods, they essentially look like this:
class Node {
public:
using iterator_category = std::forward_iterator_tag;
using value_type = Node;
using pointer = Node*;
using reference = Node&;
using size_type = size_t;
using difference_type = std::ptrdiff_t;
// Accessor functions
bool operator!= (value_type const& n) const;
bool operator== (value_type const& n) const;
reference operator*();
pointer operator&();
pointer operator->();
value_type const& operator++() const;
};
class List {
private:
typedef Node* iterator;
typedef const Node* const_iterator;
public:
// Iterators
iterator begin();
const_iterator begin() const;
iterator end();
const_iterator end() const;
// Operator overloads
Node& operator*() const;
const List* operator&() const;
const List* operator->() const;
};
I am trying to achieve something to the effect of:
for (Node n : List)
{
// Some stuff
}
Yet I keep getting the (Visual Studio) error this range-based 'for' statement requires a suitable "begin" function and none was found
What am I missing?

How const_iterators are implemented?

#include <iostream>
template <typename T>
struct Node
{
T value;
Node<T>* next;
};
template <typename T>
struct LinkedList
{
// head, tail....
// some implementation...
};
template<
template<typename> typename node,
typename T,
template<typename> typename iterator,
template<typename> typename const_iterator
>
struct SomeComonFunctionsBetweenIterators
{
node<T>* ptr;
// some implementation...
SomeComonFunctionsBetweenIterators(node<T>* ptr) : ptr(ptr) {}
T& operator*() { return ptr->value; }
iterator<T> GetIterator() { return iterator<T>(ptr); }
// doesn't work. want some way like this instead of passing the
// const iterator as a template argument.
//operator const_iterator<T>() { return iterator<const T>(ptr) ; }
operator const_iterator<T>() { return const_iterator<T>(ptr); }
};
template <typename T>
struct LinkedListConstIterator;
template <typename T>
struct LinkedListIterator
: public SomeComonFunctionsBetweenIterators<Node, T, LinkedListIterator, LinkedListConstIterator>
{
LinkedListIterator(Node<T>* ptr)
: SomeComonFunctionsBetweenIterators<Node, T, LinkedListIterator, LinkedListConstIterator>(ptr) {}
// some implementation...
};
template <typename T>
struct LinkedListConstIterator : public LinkedListIterator<T>
{
LinkedListConstIterator(Node<T>* ptr) : LinkedListIterator<T>(ptr) {}
const T& operator*() { return static_cast<const T&>(this->ptr->value); }
};
int main()
{
Node<int> node{ 5, nullptr };
LinkedListIterator<int> it(&node);
std::cout << *it << '\n';
LinkedListConstIterator<int> cit = it;
std::cout << *cit << '\n';
}
In this code I have a linked list and an iterator to it. Also I have a const iterator which inherits from the normal iterator and when dereferenced, returns a const T. The iterator can be for a singly linked list or a doubly linked list and most of the functions in both of them are the same (dereferencing or comparing for example). So I extracted the common functions and put it in a common struct. I want to be able to asign normal iterators to const iterators. So I pass the const iterator to the normal iterator as a template argument and define a conversion operator from the normal iterator to const iterator. This way works but it requires me to always pass the const iterator alongside the normal iterator as a template argument.
Is there any better way to implement const_iterators? instead of passing the const iterator everywhere. How the const_iterators are implemented for example in the STL containers?
How the const_iterators are implemented for example in the STL containers?
You can probably look in your implementation's header files to see how they chose to do it. It will depend on the container type and its internal data structure. But the common pattern I've seen is that there's some private template that can take either non-const T or const T, and that will be used as a base or member of the actual distinct iterator types. One catch is that a specific type from the data structure needs to be used, independently of the type the iterator classes expose. In your example, Node<T> and Node<const T> are not interoperable, so SomeComonFunctionsBetweenIterators could work, but should probably have the node type as a template argument independent of the value type T.
But for an easy way to define iterator types, I always turn to Boost.Iterator's iterator_facade or iterator_adaptor. They take care of a lot of the technical requirements about iterators, letting the author just fill in the behavioral bits. iterator_facade is for implementing something "from scratch", and iterator_adaptor is for the common case of an iterator that contains and wraps another iterator.
The Boost documentation for iterator_facade discusses a way to define related iterator and const_iterator types. (Though their decision to make the iterators interoperable as long as the pointers can convert probably wouldn't be appropriate for iterators from containers.)
Using iterator_facade will also give a bunch of things algorithms may expect of iterators but missing from your code shown, like making std::iterator_traits work, equality and inequality, and other fiddly details.
#include <boost/iterator/iterator_facade.hpp>
#include <type_traits>
template <typename T>
struct Node
{
T value;
Node* next;
};
template <typename NodeType, typename ValueType, typename ContainerType>
class TLinkedListIterator :
public boost::iterator_facade<
TLinkedListIterator<NodeType, ValueType, ContainerType>, // CRTP Derived type
ValueType, // Iterator's value_type
std::forward_iterator_tag // Category
>
{
public:
TLinkedListIterator() : m_node(nullptr) {}
protected:
explicit TLinkedListIterator(NodeType* node) : m_node(node) {}
private:
friend boost::iterator_core_access;
friend ContainerType;
template <typename N, typename V, typename C> friend class TLinkedListIterator;
ValueType& dereference() const { return m_node->value; }
void increment() { m_node = m_node->next; }
// Templating allows comparison between iterator and const_iterator
// in any combination.
template <typename OtherValueType>
bool equal(const TLinkedListIterator<NodeType, OtherValueType, ContainerType>& iter)
{ return m_node == iter.m_node; }
NodeType m_node;
};
template <typename T>
class LinkedList
{
public:
using iterator = TLinkedListIterator<Node<T>, T, LinkedList>;
class const_iterator
: public TLinkedListIterator<Node<T>, const T, LinkedList>
{
private:
using BaseType = TLinkedListIterator<Node<T>, const T, LinkedList>;
public:
const_iterator() = default;
// Converting constructor for implicit conversion from iterator
// to const_iterator:
const_iterator(const iterator& iter)
: BaseType(iter.m_node) {}
protected:
explicit const_iterator(Node<T>* node)
: BaseType(node) {}
friend LinkedList<T>;
};
iterator begin() { return iterator(get_head()); }
iterator end() { return iterator(); }
const_iterator begin() const { return const_iterator(get_head()); }
const_iterator end() const { return const_iterator(); }
const_iterator cbegin() const { return begin(); }
const_iterator cend() const { return end(); }
// ...
};

Accessing an outer public member from an inner class

I have the following classes and I am trying to overload the operator* from the inner class iterator
#ifndef __LISTMAP_H__
#define __LISTMAP_H__
#include "xless.h"
#include "xpair.h"
template <typename Key, typename Value, class Less=xless<Key>>
class listmap {
public:
using key_type = Key;
using mapped_type = Value;
using value_type = xpair<const key_type, mapped_type>;
private:
Less less;
struct node;
struct link {
node* next{};
node* prev{};
link (node* next, node* prev): next(next), prev(prev){}
};
struct node: link {
value_type value{};
node (node* next, node* prev, const value_type&);
};
node* anchor() { return static_cast<node*> (&anchor_); }
link anchor_ {anchor(), anchor()};
public:
class iterator;
listmap(){};
listmap (const listmap&) = default;
listmap& operator= (const listmap&) = default;
~listmap();
iterator insert (const value_type&);
iterator find (const key_type&);
iterator erase (iterator position);
iterator begin() { return anchor()->next; }
iterator end() { return anchor(); }
bool empty() const { return begin() == end(); }
};
template <typename Key, typename Value, class Less>
class listmap<Key,Value,Less>::iterator {
private:
friend class listmap<Key,Value>;
listmap<Key,Value,Less>::node* where {nullptr};
iterator (node* where): where(where){};
public:
iterator(){}
value_type& operator*();
value_type* operator->();
iterator& operator++(); //++itor
iterator& operator--(); //--itor
void erase();
bool operator== (const iterator&) const;
bool operator!= (const iterator&) const;
};
template <typename Key, typename Value, class Less>
value_type& listmap<Key,Value,Less>::iterator<Key,Value,Less>::operator*()
{
return where->value;
}
#include "listmap.tcc"
#endif
The problem is that value_type is a public member from the class listmap and it's not static, so I don't know how to complete the declaration of operator*(). I wouldn't like to fix the bug by changing the structure of the code. Ex: making
using value_type = xpair<const key_type, mapped_type>;
Global. I am just wondering if there is some other trick I can use to access value_type.
....edit: I have no idea how the inner class recognizes value_type
It's barely the same as for iterator, you just have to add typename keyword
typename listmap<Key,Value,Less>::value_type
staticness doesn't matter for a type.
The alias1 inside iterator
template <typename Key, typename Value, class Less>
class listmap<Key,Value,Less>::iterator {
...
using value_type = typename listmap<Key,Value,Less>::value_type;
};
allows you to write the definition more succinctly using auto suffix type:
template <typename Key, typename Value, class Less>
auto listmap<Key,Value,Less>::iterator::operator*() -> value_type&
{
return where->value;
}
Careful: inner iterator class is not template, only listmap is:
listmap<Key,Value,Less>::iterator<Key,Value,Less>::operator
// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ remove this
1 Btw don't forget the others.

How can I implement various iterator categories in an elegant and efficient way?

I'm implementing STL containers, for example, vector. What confused me is the implementation of iterators.
If I want to implement all iterator categories: input_iterator, output_iterator, forward_iterator, bidirectional_iterator and random_access_iterator.
How do I manage their inheritance relationships?
I've read How to implement an STL-style iterator and avoid common pitfalls?-Mooing Duck's Answer
This is his example symbolic:
iterator {
iterator(const iterator&);
~iterator();
iterator& operator=(const iterator&);
iterator& operator++(); //prefix increment
reference operator*() const;
friend void swap(iterator& lhs, iterator& rhs); //C++11 I think
};
input_iterator : public virtual iterator {
iterator operator++(int); //postfix increment
value_type operator*() const;
pointer operator->() const;
friend bool operator==(const iterator&, const iterator&);
friend bool operator!=(const iterator&, const iterator&);
};
//once an input iterator has been dereferenced, it is
//undefined to dereference one before that.
output_iterator : public virtual iterator {
reference operator*() const;
iterator operator++(int); //postfix increment
};
//dereferences may only be on the left side of an assignment
//once an input iterator has been dereferenced, it is
//undefined to dereference one before that.
forward_iterator : input_iterator, output_iterator {
forward_iterator();
};
//multiple passes allowed
bidirectional_iterator : forward_iterator {
iterator& operator--(); //prefix increment
iterator operator--(int); //postfix decrement
};
random_access_iterator : bidirectional_iterator {
friend bool operator<(const iterator&, const iterator&);
friend bool operator>(const iterator&, const iterator&);
friend bool operator<=(const iterator&, const iterator&);
friend bool operator>=(const iterator&, const iterator&);
iterator& operator+=(size_type);
friend iterator operator+(const iterator&, size_type);
friend iterator operator+(size_type, const iterator&);
iterator& operator-=(size_type);
friend iterator operator-(const iterator&, size_type);
friend difference_type operator-(iterator, iterator);
reference operator[](size_type) const;
};
But I found a problem:
If I have an instance a from class random_access_iterator, I use the code random_access_iterator b = a + 1. This will cause compile error. Because a + 1's class is base iterator, not random_access_iterator.
So I don't think this is a reasonable solution.
Do I misunderstand it? Or please tell me an elegant and efficient way to implement it.
Thanks
I think you should use CRTP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiously_recurring_template_pattern).
Like this:
template <typename T, typename ItT>
struct iiterator_t {
typedef T value_type;
typedef T& reference;
typedef T* pointer;
typedef ItT iterator_type;
virtual iterator_type& operator=(const iterator_type&) = 0;
virtual iterator_type& operator++() = 0;
virtual reference operator*() const = 0;
};
template <typename T, typename ItT>
struct iterator_impl_t : virtual public iiterator_t<T, ItT>{
typedef T value_type;
typedef T& reference;
typedef T* pointer;
typedef ItT iterator_type;
iterator_type& operator=(const iterator_type &rhs)
{
p = static_cast<const iterator_impl_t&>(rhs).p;
return dynamic_cast<iterator_type&>(*this);
}
iterator_type& operator++()
{
++p;
return dynamic_cast<iterator_type&>(*this);
}
reference operator*() const
{
return *p;
}
private:
pointer p;
};
template <typename T, typename ItT>
struct iinput_iterator_t : public virtual iiterator_t<T, ItT> {
typedef T value_type;
typedef T& reference;
typedef T* pointer;
typedef ItT iterator_type;
virtual iterator_type operator++(int) = 0;
};
template <typename T, typename ItT>
struct input_iterator_impl_t :
public virtual iinput_iterator_t<T, ItT>,
public virtual iterator_impl_t<T, ItT>
{
typedef T value_type;
typedef T& reference;
typedef T* pointer;
typedef ItT iterator_type;
iterator_type operator++(int)
{
iterator_type result(dynamic_cast<const iterator_type &>(*this));
++dynamic_cast<iterator_impl_t<T, ItT> &>(*this);
return result;
}
};
template <typename T>
struct iterator :
public virtual iterator_impl_t<T, iterator<T> >
{
};
template <typename T>
struct input_iterator :
public virtual input_iterator_impl_t<T, input_iterator<T>>
{
};
int main(int , char** )
{
iterator<int> i;
iterator<int> i2 = ++i;
input_iterator<int> inpi;
input_iterator<int> inpi2 = inpi++;
return 0;
}
Iterator categories are nothing but empty structs that act as tags.
Once finished implementing the features of your iterator class, you add its information (like which category it belongs to) into a std::iterator_traits specialization. Here's an example:
namespace std {
template <typename T>
struct iterator_traits<my_iota_iterator<T>> {
using value_type = T;
using difference_type = T;
using pointer = T const*;
using reference = T const&;
using iterator_category = std::random_access_iterator_tag; // !!
} /*struct iterator_traits*/;
} /*namespace std*/;
You can also choose to place these type aliases directly in the iterator class itself. Regardless, algorithms can now specialize upon the type of iterator_category and implement specific versions for specific categories.

iterator problem

The code is as follows
template<class T>
class arrayList {
public:
// constructor, copy constructor and destructor
arrayList(int initialCapacity = 10);
arrayList(const arrayList<T>&);
~arrayList() {
delete[] element;
}
class seamlessPointer;
seamlessPointer begin() {
return seamlessPointer(element);
}
seamlessPointer end() {
return seamlessPointer(element + listSize);
}
// iterator for arrayList
class iterator
{
public:
// typedefs required by C++ for a bidirectional iterator
typedef bidirectional_iterator_tag iterator_category;
typedef T value_type;
typedef ptrdiff_t difference_type;
typedef T* pointer;
typedef T& reference;
// constructor
iterator(T* thePosition = 0) {position = thePosition;}
// dereferencing operators
T& operator*() const {return *position;}
T* operator->() const {return position;}
// increment
iterator& operator++();
{++position; return *this;}
iterator operator++(int);
// decrement
iterator& operator--();
iterator operator--(int) ;
// equality testing
bool operator!=(const iterator right) ;
bool operator==(const iterator right) ;
protected:
T* position;
}; // end of iterator class
class seamlessPointer: public arrayList<T>::iterator {
public:
typedef random_access_iterator_tag iterator_category;
typedef T value_type;
typedef ptrdiff_t difference_type;
typedef T* pointer;
typedef T& reference;
// constructor
seamlessPointer(T *thePosition);
seamlessPointer(const seamlessPointer & rhs);
//arithmetic operators
seamlessPointer operator+(int n) ;
seamlessPointer operator-(int n) ;
};
protected:
T* element; // 1D array to hold list elements
int arrayLength; // capacity of the 1D array
int listSize; // number of elements in list
};
c:\wascana\mingw\bin\../lib/gcc/mingw32/4.5.0/include/c++/bits/stl_algo.h:5250:4: error: no match for 'operator-' in '__last - __first'
Looking over your code it appears that you've got the right kinds of ideas by including those typedefs with your own iterator implementation. However, why go to all the trouble in the first place when something else could do it for you? Have you looked at iterator_traits or the standard iterator? They just add typedefs to your code which will aid you in developing new iterator types.