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<Head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<Title>Range Concepts</Title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css">
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<table border="0" >
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<td ><img src="../../../boost.png" border="0" ></td>
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<td ><h1 align="center">Boost.Range </h1></td>
</tr>
</table>
<h2>Range concepts </h2>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="#overview">Overview</a>
<li>
<a href="#single_pass_range">Single Pass Range</a>
<li>
<a href="#forward_range">Forward Range</a>
<li>
<a href="#bidirectional_range">Bidirectional Range</a>
<li>
<a href="#random_access_range">Random Access Range</a>
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<li>
<a href="#concept_checking">Concept Checking</a>
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</ul>
<a name="overview"></a>
<hr>
<h3>Overview</h3>
<p>
A Range is a <i>concept</i> similar to the STL <a
href="http://www.sgi.com/Technology/STL/Container.html">Container</a> concept. A
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Range provides iterators for accessing a half-open range
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<code>[first,one_past_last)</code> of elements and provides
information about the number of elements in the Range. However, a Range has
<i>much</i> fewer requirements than a Container.
</p>
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<p>
The motivation for the Range concept is
that there are many useful Container-like types that do not meet the full
requirements of Container, and many algorithms that can be written with this
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reduced set of requirements. In particular, a Range does not necessarily
<ul>
<li>
own the elements that can be accessed through it,
<li>
have copy semantics,
<!--
<li>
require that the associated reference type is a real C++ reference.
-->
</ul>
Because of the second requirement, a Range object must be passed by
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(const or non-const) reference in generic code.
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</p>
<p>
The operations that can be performed on a Range is dependent on the
<a href="../../iterator/doc/new-iter-concepts.html#iterator-traversal-concepts-lib-iterator-traversal">traversal
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category</a> of the underlying iterator type. Therefore
the range concepts are named to reflect which traversal category their
iterators support. See also <a href="style.html">terminology and style
guidelines.</a> for more information about naming of ranges.</p>
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<p> The concepts described below specifies associated types as
<a href="../../mpl/doc/refmanual/metafunction.html">metafunctions</a> and all
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functions as free-standing functions to allow for a layer of indirection. </p>
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<!--<p><i>Notice that these metafunctions must be defined in namespace </i>
<code>boost</code></p>-->
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<hr>
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<a name="single_pass_range"></a>
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<H2>Single Pass Range</H2>
<h3>Notation</h3>
<Table>
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<TR>
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<TD VAlign="top"><code>X</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top">A type that is a model of Single Pass Range.</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>a</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top">Object of type <code>X</code>.</TD>
</TR>
</table>
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<h3>Description</h3>
<p>
A range X where <code>boost::range_iterator&lt;X>::type</code> is a model of <a
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href="../../iterator/doc/new-iter-concepts.html#single-pass-iterators-lib-single-pass-iterators">
Single Pass Iterator</a>
</p>
<h3>Associated types</h3>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
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<TR>
<TD VAlign="top">Iterator type</TD>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>boost::range_iterator&lt;X>::type</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top">The type of iterator used to iterate through a Range's elements.
The iterator's value type is expected to be the Range's value type. A
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conversion from the iterator type to the const iterator type must exist.
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top">Const iterator type</TD>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>boost::range_iterator&lt;const X>::type</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top">A type of iterator that may be used to examine, but not to
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modify, a Range's elements.</TD>
</TR>
<!--
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top">Reference type</TD>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>reference_of&lt;X>::type</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top">A type that behaves like a reference to the Range's value type. <a href="#1">[1]</a></TD>
</TR>
-->
</table>
<h3>Valid expressions</h3>
The following expressions must be valid.
<p>
<Table border="1" cellpadding="5">
<TR>
<TH>Name</TH>
<TH>Expression</TH>
<TH>Return type</TH>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top">Beginning of range</TD>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>boost::begin(a)</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>boost::range_iterator&lt;X>::type</code> if
<code>a</code> is mutable, <code>boost::range_iterator&lt;const X>::type</code>
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otherwise</TD> </TR>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top">End of range</TD>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>boost::end(a)</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>boost::range_iterator&lt;X>::type</code> if
<code>a</code> is mutable, <code>boost::range_iterator&lt;const X>::type</code>
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otherwise</TD>
</TR>
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</table>
<h3>Expression semantics</h3>
<Table border>
<TR>
<TH>Expression</TH>
<TH>Semantics</TH>
<TH>Postcondition</TH>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>boost::begin(a)</code></TD>
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<TD VAlign="top">Returns an iterator pointing to the first element in the Range.</TD>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>boost::begin(a)</code> is either dereferenceable or past-the-end.
It is past-the-end if and only if <code>boost::distance(a) == 0</code>.</TD>
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</TR>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>boost::end(a)</code></TD>
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<TD VAlign="top">Returns an iterator pointing one past the last element in the
Range.</TD>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>boost::end(a)</code> is past-the-end.</TD>
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</TR>
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</table>
<h3>Complexity guarantees</h3>
<code>boost::end(a)</code> is at most amortized linear time, <code>boost::begin(a)</code> is
amortized constant time. For most practical
purposes, one can expect both to be amortized constant time.
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<h3>Invariants</h3>
<Table border>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top">Valid range</TD>
<TD VAlign="top">For any Range <code>a</code>, <code>[boost::begin(a),boost::end(a))</code> is
a valid range, that is, <code>boost::end(a)</code> is reachable from <code>boost::begin(a)</code>
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in a finite number of increments.</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top">Completeness</TD>
<TD VAlign="top">An algorithm that iterates through the range <code>[boost::begin(a),boost::end(a))</code>
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will pass through every element of <code>a</code>.</TD>
</tr>
</table>
<h3>See also</h3>
<p><a
href="boost_range.html#minimal_interface">Extending the library for UDTs </a></p>
<p> <a href="boost_range.html#boost::rang_difference">Implementation of
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metafunctions </a></p>
<p> <a href="boost_range.html#begin">Implementation of
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functions </a></p>
<p>
<A href="http://www.sgi.com/Technology/STL/Container.html">Container</A>
</p>
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<hr>
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<a name=forward_range></a><h2>Forward Range</h2>
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<h3>Notation</h3>
<Table>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>X</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top">A type that is a model of Forward Range.</TD>
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</TR>
<TR>
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<TD VAlign="top"><code>a</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top">Object of type <code>X</code>.</TD>
</TR>
</table>
<h3>Description</h3>
<p>
A range <code>X</code> where <code>boost::range_iterator&lt;X>::type</code> is a model
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of <a
href="../../iterator/doc/new-iter-concepts.html#forward-traversal-iterators-lib-forward-traversal-iterators">Forward Traversal Iterator</a>
</p>
<h3>Refinement of</h3> <a href="#single_pass_range">Single Pass
Range</a>
</p>
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<hr>
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<a name="bidirectional_range"></a><h2>Bidirectional Range</h2>
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<h3>Notation</h3>
<Table>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>X</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top">A type that is a model of Bidirectional Range.</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD VAlign="top"><code>a</code></TD>
<TD VAlign="top">Object of type <code>X</code>.</TD>
</TR>
</table>
<h3>Description</h3> This concept provides access to iterators that traverse in
both directions (forward and reverse). The
<code>boost::range_iterator&lt;X>::type</code> iterator must meet all of the requirements
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of <a
href="../../iterator/doc/new-iter-concepts.html#bidirectional-traversal-iterator
s-lib-bidirectional-traversal-iterators">Bidirectional Traversal Iterator.</a>
<h3>Refinement of</h3> <a href="#forward_range">Forward Range</a>
</p>
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<hr>
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<a name=random_access_range></a><h2>Random Access Range</h2>
<h3>Description</h3>
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<p>
A range <code>X</code> where <code>boost::range_iterator&lt;X>::type</code> is a model
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of <a
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href="../../iterator/doc/new-iter-concepts.html#random-access-traversal-iterators
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-lib-random-access-traversal-iterators">Random Access Traversal Iterator</a>
</p>
<h3>Refinement of</h3>
<p>
<a href="#bidirectional_range">Bidirectional Range</a>
</p>
<hr>
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<a name=concept_checking></a><h2>Concept Checking</h2>
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Each of the range concepts has a corresponding concept checking
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class in the file <code>&lt;boost/range/concepts.hpp&gt;</code>. These classes may be
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used in conjunction with the <a
href="../../concept_check/concept_check.htm">Boost Concept
Check</a> library to insure that the type of a template parameter
is compatible with a range concept. If not, a meaningful compile
time error is generated. Checks are provided for the range
concepts related to iterator traversal categories. For example,
the following line checks that the type <code>T</code> models the
<a href="#forward_range">ForwardRange</a> concept.
<pre>
function_requires&lt;ForwardRangeConcept&lt;T&gt; &gt;();
</pre>
An additional concept check is required for the value access
property of the range based on the range's iterator type. For
example to check for a ForwardReadableRange, the following code is
required.
<pre>
function_requires&lt;ForwardRangeConcept&lt;T&gt; &gt;();
function_requires&lt;
ReadableIteratorConcept&lt;
typename range_iterator&lt;T&gt;::type
&gt;
&gt;();
</pre>
The following range concept checking classes are provided.
<ul>
<li>
Class <code>SinglePassRangeConcept</code> checks for <a
href="#single_pass_range">Single Pass Range</a>
<li>
Class <code>ForwardRangeConcept</code> checks for <a
href="#forward_range">Forward Range</a>
<li>
Class <code>BidirectionalRangeConcept</code> checks for <a
href="#bidirectional_range">Bidirectional Range</a>
<li>
Class <code>RandomAccessRangeConcept</code> checks for <a
href="#random_access_range">Random Access Range</a>
</ul>
<h3>See also</h3>
<p> <a href="style.html">Range Terminology and style guidelines</a></p>
<p> <a href="../../iterator/doc/iterator_concepts.html">Iterator Concepts</a></p>
<p> <a href="../../concept_check/concept_check.htm">Boost Concept Check library</a></p>
<hr>
<p>
&copy; <a name="Copyright" id="Copyright">Copyright</a> Thorsten Ottosen 2008.
</p>
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<p>
Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy
at <a href=
"http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
</p>
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