Re: 'Looping' an std::list

From:
"Daniel T." <postmaster@verizon.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sat, 27 May 2006 19:35:06 GMT
Message-ID:
<postmaster-394C81.15344327052006@news.west.earthlink.net>
In article <1148755600.962259.283320@j55g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
 "esuvs" <david@david-williams.info> wrote:

Hi, I would like to change the behavior of the std::list so that if I
set an iterator to the last element and increment it I would like it to
point to the first element, and vice vesa. That is, i would like to use
it as a circular buffer.

Is this possble? Given that the linked list is probably just a set of
nodes and 'next' pointers it doesn't seem unreasonable (just set the
last pointer to point at the start) but I suspect the std::list is to
safe/robust to allow me to abuse it in this way...

Be great if someone could prove me wrong :-D Otherwise is there an
STL/Boost container giving this behaviour? I think i could do it with
boost::graph but seems a bit of a heavyweight solution.


I posted the below back in March... (Pieter Pareit seems to have posted
something very much like it back in Jan of 2002.)

You can use the circular_iterator on any of the standard containers. The
code below does need some fleshing out (for eg: post-increment and
decrement, operator->() and const dereference operators) but the below
is enough for most uses.

? ?template < typename Container >
class circular_iterator_t : public std::iterator<
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?typename Container::iterator::iterator_category,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?typename Container::iterator::value_type >
{
? ?Container& rep;
? ?typename Container::iterator loc;
public:
? ?explicit circular_iterator_t( Container& container ):
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?rep( container ), loc( container.begin() ) { }
? ?circular_iterator_t( Container& container,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?typename Container::iterator it ):
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?rep( container ), loc( it ) { }
? ?typename Container::value_type& operator*() {
? ? ? return *loc;
? ?}
? ?circular_iterator_t& operator--() {
? ? ? if ( loc == rep.begin() )
? ? ? ? ?loc = --rep.end();
? ? ? else
? ? ? ? ?--loc;
? ? ? return *this;
? ?}
? ?circular_iterator_t& operator++() {
? ? ? ++loc;
? ? ? if ( loc == rep.end() )
? ? ? ? ?loc = rep.begin();
? ? ? return *this;
? ?}
? ?friend bool operator==( const circular_iterator_t& lhs,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?const circular_iterator_t& rhs ) {
? ? ? return lhs.rep == rhs.rep && lhs.loc == rhs.loc;
? ?}
};

? ?template < typename Container >
bool operator!=( const circular_iterator_t<Container>& lhs,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?const circular_iterator_t<Container>& rhs ) {
? ?return !( lhs == rhs );

}

? ?template < typename Container >
circular_iterator_t<Container> circular_iterator( Container& container )
{
? ?return circular_iterator_t<Container>( container );
}

? ?template < typename Container >
circular_iterator_t<Container> circular_iterator( Container& container,
                                    typename Container::iterator it ) {
? ?return circular_iterator_t<Container>( container, it );
}

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