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Is there a way in C++, given an iterator, I can get the container it's
pointing to, in analogy of anIterator::value_type which gives the type of
the elements of the container ?

Lieven wrote in news:41af1926$0$25065$ in
comp.lang.c++:

> Is there a way in C++, given an iterator, I can get the container it's
> pointing to, in analogy of anIterator::value_type which gives the type of
> the elements of the container ?
>
>

No, sorry. There simply isn't enough information associated with
an iterator type to work back to the container.

As an example a T * type could be an iterator into an inbuilt array
T array[ 100 ] or a std::vector< T >.

Rob.
--
http://www.victim-prime.dsl.pipex.com/

"Lieven" <> wrote in message
news:41af1926$0$25065$...
> Is there a way in C++, given an iterator, I can get the container it's
> pointing to, in analogy of anIterator::value_type which gives the type of
> the elements of the container ?

You can't even get the type of container its pointing into, unless its one of
the standard inerter iterators.

Jonathan

"Rob Williscroft" <> wrote in message
> Lieven wrote in news:41af1926$0$25065$ in

> > Is there a way in C++, given an iterator, I can get the container it's
> > pointing to, in analogy of anIterator::value_type which gives the type
of
> > the elements of the container ?
>
> No, sorry. There simply isn't enough information associated with
> an iterator type to work back to the container.
>
> As an example a T * type could be an iterator into an inbuilt array
> T array[ 100 ] or a std::vector< T >.

As far as standard containers go, it could also be a std::basic_string<int>.