I'm writing an own container class and have run into a problem I can't get my head around. Here's the bare-bone sample that shows the problem.
It consists of a container class and two test classes: one test class using a std:vector which compiles nicely and the second test class which tries to use my own container class in exact the same way but fails miserably to compile.
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
using namespace std;
template <typename T>
class MyContainer
{
public:
class iterator
{
public:
typedef iterator self_type;
inline iterator() { }
};
class const_iterator
{
public:
typedef const_iterator self_type;
inline const_iterator() { }
};
iterator begin() {
return iterator();
}
const_iterator begin() const {
return const_iterator();
}
};
// This one compiles ok, using std::vector
class TestClassVector
{
public:
void test() {
vector<int>::const_iterator I=myc.begin();
}
private:
vector<int> myc;
};
// this one fails to compile. Why?
class TestClassMyContainer
{
public:
void test(){
MyContainer<int>::const_iterator I=myc.begin();
}
private:
MyContainer<int> myc;
};
int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
return 0;
}
gcc tells me:
test2.C: In member function ‘void TestClassMyContainer::test()’:
test2.C:51: error: conversion from ‘MyContainer::iterator’ to non-scalar type ‘MyContainer::const_iterator’ requested
I'm not sure where and why the compiler wants to convert an iterator to a const_iterator for my own class but not for the STL vector class. What am I doing wrong?
When you call begin()
the compiler by default creates a call to the non-const begin()
. Since myc
isn't const, it has no way of knowing you mean to use the const begin()
rather than the non-const begin()
.
The STL iterator contains a cast operator which allows an iterator
to be silently converted to a const_iterator
. If you want this to work you need to add one as well like so:
class iterator
{
public:
typedef iterator self_type;
inline iterator() { }
operator const_iterator() { return const_iterator(); }
};
or allow const_iterator
to be constructed from an iterator
like so:
class const_iterator
{
public:
typedef const_iterator self_type;
const_iterator(iterator& ) {}
inline const_iterator() { }
};