std::equal()
is unsafe because the function cannot know whether it will overrun the length of the second container to be compared. That is:
std::vector< int > v( 100 );
std::vector< int > w( 10 );
bool same = std::equal( v.begin(), v.end(), w.begin() );
...will result in a buffer overrun for w
.
Naturally we can test for these things (v.size() == w.size()
), but compilers like Visual Studio 2010 still report the function itself as unsafe. And indeed it is unsafe in some fundamental sense: a team of programmers of varying levels of experience will eventually forget to compare sizes.
A safe alternative is easy to implement.
template< typename Iter1, typename Iter2 >
bool equal_safe( Iter1 begin1, Iter1 end1, Iter2 begin2, Iter2 end2 )
{
while( begin1 != end1 && begin2 != end2 )
{
if( *begin1 != *begin2 )
{
return false;
}
++begin1;
++begin2;
}
return begin1 == end1 && begin2 == end2;
}
But is there a safe alternative in the standard library?
In C++14, the standard library will contain a version of std::equal
that takes two pairs of iterators, similar to your safe_equal
. Same for std::mismatch
and std::is_permutation
.