指向特定类型的STL-Container样式和迭代器（C ++）

Question

I have a container class (called Atom) that I want to store objects of type Term in. Many STL container constructors have the form Container(Iterator first, Iterator last) to initialize the container with some set of elements.

Now, I'd like to be able to use this form for my Atom class, but I'm unsure how to untie the iterator from its container class. For instance, currently I have:

class Atom {
public:
  Atom(std::string str, 
    std::vector<Term>::const_iterator start, 
    std::vector<Term>::const_iterator end);

This only allowed vector iterators. How can I generalize the type of iterator I take?

Answer 1

Whenever you need to generalize on types, think templates:

class Atom {
public:
  template <typename ForwardIterator>
  Atom(std::string str, 
    ForwardIterator start, 
    ForwardIterator end);

Now just iterate over the range, whatever it may be.

Answer 2

You can declare the constructor as a template of its own. Just treat start and end as iterators and if they support that interface they will work. Don't worry about forcing the iterators to handle type Term . If the copy constructor can convert it to a Term it'll work.

The constructor might look like:

template<typename I> Atom(std::string str, I start, I end);