iterator use in functions...

[Noiroi]

I have the following line:
vector<int>::iterator p = varrInts.begin();

I would like to pass p as a parameter to a function. Since this is an iterator,
I'm unsure how to do that. Can someone shed some light on this?

Noiroi

[Noiroi]

Ok, I've been thinking about this... would it be better to do something like:

int MyFunction( vector<int> vec )
{
/*... some manipulation ...*/
return something;
}

or better to pass a pointer to the vec iterator created?
vector<int>::iterator p = varrInts.begin();

int MyFunction( int* vec )
{
/*... some manipulation ...*/
return something;
}

I'm thinking that iterators are basically abstract pointers to sometype,
so since the vector is defined as an int, then I'd use the above format.
Can anyone verify this?


"Noiroi" <noiroi@noiroi.com> wrote:
>
>I have the following line:
>vector<int>::iterator p = varrInts.begin();
>
>I would like to pass p as a parameter to a function. Since this is an iterator,
>I'm unsure how to do that. Can someone shed some light on this?
>
>Noiroi

[Danny Kalev]

Noiroi wrote:
>
> Ok, I've been thinking about this... would it be better to do something like:
>
> int MyFunction( vector<int> vec )

this is really a bad idea. You're passing a whole container by value,
which means that when called, the function gets a copy of the original
container and that copy is discarded when the function returns. You
certainly don't want to that.
> {
> /*... some manipulation ...*/
> return something;
> }
>
> or better to pass a pointer to the vec iterator created?
> vector<int>::iterator p = varrInts.begin();

It's simple. You already know how to declare an iterator. To pass it as
a parameter, use the same declaration in the function's prototype:

int MyFunction(vector<int>::iterator p)
{
..
}

Danny