C++ STL iterator interface

Question

I know that the STL library uses different kind of iterators to traverse his containers: input, output, forward, bidirectional and random access.

I also know that iterators abstact the classic c pointer interface. So an iterator class must have the ++, * operators and so on (to act like a pointer).

Is the interface for every kind of iterator written in some specification? Is this interface just a convention used in the STL library or is there some hierarchy of classes from which I should extend my iterators?

From what I understand, I should just 'copy' the interface conventions followed in the STL library to be able to use my iterators with it.

Answer 1

You can lookup each iterator category interface requirements from iterator page.

As already mentioned, people often don't bother implementing the entire iterator interfaces from scratch, but use boost::iterator library for taking care of the boilerplate code.