vector::erase

To erase an element at an index i, do

vec.erase(vec.begin() + i)

an iterator is a "pointer to an element for an STL structure". It's a thing that acts like a pointer and can be dereferenced like a pointer, but it's not a pointer. got it?

You won't use them so much for vectors, but heavily for other containers. If you wanted to erase an element in the container, you need to have an iterator that points to that element. (not a straight-up pointer)

for instance, v.begin() returns in iter to the very first element. If you wanted to erase an element, you'd need an iter as a param for erasing. So if you wanted to nuke the first element, you could use v.erase( v.begin() ).

If you wanted to nuke the 3rd element there are several ways to do that, but the quick way is mentioned above.



[edited by - leiavoia on April 28, 2004 10:03:11 PM]

All this iterator crap??? You are not going to like the STL.

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blah blah blah.

quote:

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Original post by Mulligan
whats with all this bloated iterator crap? I dont understand how to make it work.

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Iterators are one the nicest abstraction around. They allow you to go through a collection without knowing the underlying structure.

Also, it does not have to be linear like on an array. For example if you have a tree structure, you can make iterator that goes through the tree depth first or breadth first.

If you are making a game and you are doing a trace on what objects get hit by a ray, you could return an iterator that does front to back or another one that does back to front.

Yet the code to loop through the result will look exactly that same even the if collection or the method of iteration changes.