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Section: 25.3.5.5 [forward.iterators] Status: CD1 Submitter: Matt Austern Opened: 1999-11-19 Last modified: 2016-01-28
Priority: Not Prioritized
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Discussion:
In table 74, the return type of the expression *a
is given
as T&
, where T
is the iterator's value type.
For constant iterators, however, this is wrong. ("Value type"
is never defined very precisely, but it is clear that the value type
of, say, std::list<int>::const_iterator
is supposed to be
int
, not const int
.)
Proposed resolution:
In table 74, in the *a
and *r++
rows, change the
return type from "T&
" to "T&
if X
is mutable, otherwise const T&
".
In the a->m
row, change the return type from
"U&
" to "U&
if X
is mutable,
otherwise const U&
".
[Tokyo: The LWG believes this is the tip of a larger iceberg; there are multiple const problems with the STL portion of the library and that these should be addressed as a single package. Note that issue 180(i) has already been declared NAD Future for that very reason.]
[Redmond: the LWG thinks this is separable from other constness issues. This issue is just cleanup; it clarifies language that was written before we had iterator_traits. Proposed resolution was modified: the original version only discussed *a. It was pointed out that we also need to worry about *r++ and a->m.]