temporary lifetime in range-for expression

Question

Consider a simple class A that can be used as a range:

struct A { 
    ~A() { std::cout << "~A "; }

    const char* begin() const {
        std::cout << "A::begin ";
        return s.data();
    }   

    const char* end() const {
        std::cout << "A::end ";
        return s.data() + s.size();
    }   

    std::string s;
};

If I make a temporary A in a range-for, it works exactly as I would hope:

for (auto c : A{"works"}) {
    std::cout << c << ' ';
} 

// output
A::begin A::end w o r k s ~A 

However, if I try to wrap the temporary:

struct wrap {
    wrap(A&& a) : a(std::move(a))
    { } 

    const char* begin() const { return a.begin(); }
    const char* end() const { return a.end(); }

    A&& a;
};

for (auto c : wrap(A{"fails"})) {
    std::cout << c << ' ';
}

// The temporary A gets destroyed before the loop even begins: 
~A A::begin A::end 
^^

Why is A 's lifetime not extended for the full range-for expression, and how can I make that happen without resorting to making a copy of the A ?

Answer 1

Lifetime extension only occurs when binding directly to references outside of a constructor.

Reference lifetime extension within a constructor would be technically challenging for compilers to implement.

If you want reference lifetime extension, you will be forced to make a copy of it. The usual way is:

struct wrap {
  wrap(A&& a) : a(std::move(a))
  {} 

  const char* begin() const { return a.begin(); }
  const char* end() const { return a.end(); }

  A a;
};

In many contexts, wrap is itself a template:

template<class A>
struct wrap {
  wrap(A&& a) : a(std::forward<A>(a))
  {} 

  const char* begin() const { return a.begin(); }
  const char* end() const { return a.end(); }

  A a;
};

and if A is a Foo& or a Foo const& , references are stored. If it is a Foo , then a copy is made.

An example of such a pattern in use would be if wrap where called backwards , and it returned iterators that where reverse iterators constructed from A . Then temporary ranges would be copied into backwards , while non-temporary objects would be just viewed.

In theory, a language that allowed you to markup parameters to functions and constructors are "dependent sources" whose lifetime should be extended as long as the object/return value would be interesting. This probably is tricky. As an example, imagine new wrap( A{"works"} ) -- the automatic storage temporary now has to last as long as the free store wrap !

Answer 2

The reason the lifetime of the temporary is not extended is how the standard defines range-based for loops in

6.5.4 The range-based for statement [stmt.ranged]

¹ For a range-based for statement of the form

for ( for-range-declaration : expression ) statement

let range-init be equivalent to the expression surrounded by parentheses

( expression )

and for a range-based for statement of the form

for ( for-range-declaration : braced-init-list ) statement

let range-init be equivalent to the braced-init-list . In each case, a range-based for statement is equivalent to

 { auto && __range = range-init; for ( auto __begin = begin-expr, __end = end-expr; __begin != __end; ++__begin ) { for-range-declaration = *__begin; statement } } 

Note that auto && __range = range-init; would extend the lifetime of a temporary returned from range-init , but it does not extend the lifetime of nested temporaries inside of range-init .

This is IMHO a very unfortunate definition and was even discussed as Defect Report 900 . It seems to be the only part of the standard where a reference is implicitly bound to extend the lifetime of an expressions result without extending the lifetime of nested temporaries.

The solution is to store a copy in the wrapper - which often defeats the purpose of the wrapper.