1 Revision History

Since [P2278R3], wording updates (including a revamp of all the comparison operators) and having views::as_const(s) for a span<T> return a span<T const>. This ensures that, for instance, s | views::take(n) | views::as_const and s | views::as_const | views::take(n) both produce the same type.

Since [P2278R2], renamed views::all_const back to views::as_const, see naming. Wording fixes.

Since [P2278R1], renamed views::as_const to views::all_const. Added several additional alias templates and a feature-test macro. Fixed some wording issues.

Since [P2278R0], added wording (including ranges::cdata, which was omitted in the first revision, and adding member cbegin and cend to view_interface). Renamed views::as_const to views::as_const. Also fixed views::as_const definition to handle deep-const views (they do exist).

2 How we got to here

A tale in many acts.

2.1 Prologue: Terminology

25.3.1 [iterator.requirements.general]/5 states:

Iterators that further meet the requirements of output iterators are called mutable iterators. Nonmutable iterators are referred to as constant iterators.

This paper uses those terms with those meanings: a mutable iterator is one that is writable to, a constant iterator is one that is not writable to.

2.2 Act I: Introduction of Member cbegin

In 2004, C++0x had added auto but not yet added the range-based for statement. So there was this problem: how do you write a for loop that is immutable? The goal of the paper was quite clear:

and:

The solution proposed in [N1674] (and later adopted by way of [N1913]) was to add members cbegin() and cend() (and crbegin() and crend()) to all the standard library containers, facilitating this code:

for (auto it = v.cbegin(), end = v.cend(); it != end; ++it)  {
    //use *it ...
}

c.cbegin() was specified in all of these containers to perform as_const(c).begin(). Although std::as_const itself was not added until much later - it is a C++17 feature, first proposed in [N4380].

2.3 Act II: Rise of Non-Member cbegin

C++11 thus added the free functions std::begin and std::end, and member functions c.cbegin() and c.cend(). But it did not yet have free functions to fetch constant iterators: those were added in 2013 by way of [LWG2128].

While, std::begin(c) always calls c.begin() (except for C arrays), std::cbegin(c) was not specified to call c.cbegin(). Instead it, too, called std::begin(c) (not even c.begin()):

There are two important goals here to highlight.

First, the goal is still to provide constant iterators, not just call begin() const. The latter is an implementation strategy for the former.

Second, the goal is to avoid boilerplate. An implementation where std::cbegin(c) called c.cbegin() would require c.cbegin() to exist, which, as is clear from the list above, is not the case for a lot of useful types.

As a result, std::cbegin(c) is basically specified to be std::begin(as_const(c)) (although, again, predating std::as_const) which is basically as_const(c).begin().

The status quo at this point is that c.cbegin(), as_const(c).begin(), and std::cbegin(c) are all equivalent (where they are all valid) and all yield constant iterators.

2.4 Act III: Climax of the Views

Before 2018, the standard library had two non-owning range types: std::initializer_list<T> (since C++11) and std::string_view (since C++17). Non-owning ranges are shallow-const, but both of these types are always-const so that distinction was insignificant.

That soon changed. 2018 opened with the addition of std::span [P0122R7] and closed with the adoption of Ranges [P0896R4], with a few more views added the subsequent year by way of [P1035R7]. Now, for the first time, the C++ standard library had non-owning ranges that were nevertheless mutable. Ranges itself was but a small part of the range-v3 library, so there is a promise of many more views to come.

These types really throw a wrench in the cbegin design: because now begin() const does not necessarily yield a constant iterator, whereas this had previously always been the case.

It’s important to note that while it had previously always been the case in the standard library, that is not true for the broad C++ community. In particular, Boost.Range (which begat range-v3 which begat C++20 Ranges) has for a very long time had a type named boost::iterator_range<It> (the predecessor to std::ranges::subrange<It>). This is a view, although that term hadn’t existed yet, and so it had a begin() const member function that just returned an It. Which means that std::cbegin on an iterator_range<int*> gives you an int* - a mutable iterator.

Where this discrepancy became most apparently visible was the specification of std::span during the ballot resolution (by way of [LWG3320]). For the sake of simplicity, I am going to assume that the iterator types of span<T> and span<T const> are just T* and T const*, respectively.

• span<T>::begin() const, like all the other views, is shallow const, and so returns T*.
• span<T>::cbegin() const, like the other standard library containers, was provided for convenient access to a constant iterator. This returned T const*. Unlike the other standard library containers, this did not simply defer to begin() const.

So far so good. But because std::cbegin(s) is specified to do std::begin(as_const(s)), we end up having different behavior between s.cbegin() and std::cbegin(s). This is the first (and, thus far, only) type in the standard library for which this is the case - and while s.cbegin() would have yielded a constant iterator, std::cbegin(s) does not.

As a result of NB comment resolution, to ship a coherent C++20, span’s cbegin() and cend() members were removed, for consistency.

2.5 Intermezzo: Examining the C++20 Status Quo

This leaves us in a state where:

• for all the standard library containers, r.cbegin() and std::cbegin(r) are equivalent, both meaning as_const(r).begin(), and both yielding a constant iterator. This is likely true for many containers defined outside of the standard library as well.

• for most of the standard library views, r.cbegin() does not exist and std::cbegin(r) is a valid expression that could yield a mutable iterator (e.g. std::span<T>). There are three different kinds of exceptions:

  1. std::string_view::cbegin() exists and is a constant iterator (since it is const-only). std::initializer_list<T>::cbegin() does not exist, but std::cbegin(il) also yields a constant iterator.
  2. std::ranges::single_view<T> is an owning view and is actually thus deep const. While it does not have a cbegin() member function, std::cbegin(v) nevertheless yields a constant iterator (the proposed views::maybe in [P1255R6] would also fit into this category).
  3. std::ranges::filter_view<V, F> is not actually const-iterable at all, so it is neither the case that filt.cbegin() exists as a member function nor that std::cbegin(filt) (nor std::ranges::cbegin(filt)) is well-formed. Many other views fit this category as well (drop_view being the most obvious, but drop, reverse, and join may not be either, etc.). Other future views may fit into this category as well (e.g. my proposed improvement to views::split in [P2210R0]).

Put differently, the C++20 status quo is that std::cbegin on an owning range always provides a constant iterator while std::cbegin on a non-owning view could provide a mutable iterator or not compile at all.

The original desire of Walter’s paper from more than 15 years ago (which, in 2020 terms, may as well have happened at the last Jupiter/Saturn conjunction) still holds today:

How could we add const-correctness to views?

2.6 A Non-Solution: Member cbegin()

One approach we could take to provide reliable const-traversal of unknown ranges is to push the problem onto the ranges:

1. We could say that std::cbegin(c) (and std::ranges::cbegin(c) as well) first tries to call c.cbegin() if that exists and only if it doesn’t to fall-back to its present behavior of std::begin(as_const(c)).
2. We could then pair such a change with going through the standard library and ensuring that all views have a member cbegin() const that yields a constant iterator. Even the ones like std::initializer_list<T> that don’t currently have such a member?

Such a design would ensure that for all standard library ranges, r.cbegin() and std::cbegin(r) are equivalent and yield a constant iterator. Except for filter_view, for which std::cbegin(filt) would continue to not compile as it takes a C const&.

What does this do for all the views outside of the standard library? It does nothing. std::cbegin(v) on such views would continue to yield a mutable iterator, as it does today with boost::iterator_range. That, in of itself, makes this change somewhat unsatisfactory.

But what would it actually mean to add a member cbegin() const to every view type? What would such a member function do? What it should do is the exact same thing for every view — the same exact same thing that all views external to the standard library would have to do in order to opt in to const-traversal-on-demand.

But if every type needs to do the same thing, that’s an algorithm. The standard library should provide it once rather than having every view re-implement it. Or, more likely, have every view delegate to the algorithm and just have boilerplate member function implementations. A substantial amount of view implementations are already boilerplate, we do not need more.

3 Act IV: std::const_iterator

The problem we actually have is this: given an iterator, how do I create an iterator that is identical in all respects except for top-level mutability? This is, ultimately, the problem that from the very beginning vector<T>::const_iterator is intending to solve. It is a vector<T>::iterator in all respects (it’s contiguous, its value type is T, it would have the same bounds coming from the same container) except that dereferencing such an iterator would give a T const& instead of a T&.

3.1 A Reverse Digression

We’re already used to the fact that some iterators are generic wrappers over other iterators. vector<T> is already specified as:

namespace std {
  template<class T, class Allocator = allocator<T>>
  class vector {
  public:
    // types

    using iterator               = implementation-defined; // see [container.requirements]
    using const_iterator         = implementation-defined; // see [container.requirements]
    using reverse_iterator       = std::reverse_iterator<iterator>;
    using const_reverse_iterator = std::reverse_iterator<const_iterator>;

Nobody is especially surprised by the fact that every container isn’t manually implementing its own bespoke reverse iterators. std::reverse_iterator<It> does the job. Yet, std::rbegin(c) always calls c.rbegin() (except for arrays). Even though we’ve had this perfectly generic solution for a long time, if you wanted your container to support reverse-iteration, you just had to write these boilerplate rbegin()/rend() member functions that wrapped your iterators.

Ranges improved this situation. std::ranges::rbegin(E) is a much more complicated algorithm that takes many steps (see 26.3.6 [range.access.rbegin] for complete description), but a key aspect of the design there is that if std::ranges::begin(E) and std::ranges::end(E) give you bidirectional_iterators, then std::ranges::rbegin(E) itself does the wrapping and provides you make_reverse_iterator(ranges​::​end(E)). No more pushing work onto the containers. That means that it works even in this case:

struct simple_span {
    int* begin() const;
    int* end() const;
};

void algo(simple_span ss) {
    auto rit = std::ranges::rbegin(ss); // ok
    auto rend = std::ranges::rend(ss);  // ok
    // ...
}

std::rbegin would’ve failed in this case, because we don’t have the boilerplate necessary to make it work. But instead of pushing that boilerplate onto simple_span, we consigned it into std::ranges::rbegin. A much better solution.

3.2 Const Is No Different

A generic reverse_iterator<It> is not that complicated. We’re basically inverting operations. But the crux of the iterator remains the same: *it passes through to its underlying iterator.

A generic const_iterator<It> at first seems much less complicated. Every operation is passthrough, except for one. We are only modifying the behavior of the dereference operator. Yet, doing the right thing for dereference is decidedly non-trivial. Let’s go through some cases. We’re going to look at both the value type and reference type of several ranges and say what we want the desired const_iterator<iterator_t<R>> to dereference into:

This table points out a few things:

• A first thought might be that we need to return a range_value_t<R> const&, but while that works in some cases, it would lead to every element dangling in other cases.
• Sometimes, It is already a constant iterator, so we would want to actively avoid wrapping in such a case.
• The last couple rows are hard.

Thankfully, this is a solved problem. The views::const_ adapter in range-v3 has for many years used a formula that works for all of these cases. In C++20 Ranges terms, I would spell it this way:

template <std::input_iterator It>
using const_ref_for = std::common_reference_t<
    std::iter_value_t<It> const&&,
    std::iter_reference_t<It>>;

This does not yield the correct result for the last row in my table at the moment, but now that we are making the changes to std::tuple prescribed in [P2321R2], it soon will.

Avoiding unnecessary wrapping can be achieved through a factory function that checks to see if such wrapping would change type:

// a type is a constant iterator if its an iterator whose reference type is
// the same as the type that const_ref_for would pick for it
template <typename It>
concept constant-iterator = std::input_iterator<It>
                         && std::same_as<const_ref_for<It>, std::iter_reference_t<It>>;

// a type is a constant range if it is a range whose iterator is a constant iterator
template <typename R>
concept constant-range = std::ranges::range<R> && constant-iterator<std::ranges::iterator_t<R>>;

template <std::input_iterator It>
constexpr auto make_const_iterator(It it) {
    if constexpr (constant-iterator<It>) {
        // already a constant iterator
        return it;
    } else {
        return basic_const_iterator<It>(it);
    }
}

template <std::input_iterator It>
using const_iterator = decltype(make_const_iterator(std::declval<It>()));

Unfortunately we have a lot of names here:

• const_iterator<I> is an alias template that gives you a constant iterator version of I. If I is already a constant iterator, then const_iterator<I> is I.
• make_const_iterator<I>(i) is a factory function template that takes an input iterator and produces a const_iterator<I>. Likewise, if I is already a constant iterator, then this function returns i.
• basic_const_iterator<I> is an implementation detail of the library to satisfy the requirements of the above to ensure that we get a constant iterator.

It’s important to have const_iterator<int const*> produce the type int const*. If we just had a single class template const_iterator (that itself was the implementation for a constant iterator), then it could lead to subtle misuse:

template <typename T>
struct span {
    using iterator = /* ... */;
    using const_iterator = std::const_iterator<iterator>;
};

span<T const>::iterator is already a constant iterator, it doesn’t need to be wrapped further. So span<T const>::const_iterator should really be the same type. It would be nice if the above were already just correct. Hence, the extra names. Users probably never need to use std::basic_const_iterator<I> directly (or, indeed, even make_const_iterator).

3.3 Implementing std::basic_const_iterator<I>

There’s a lot of boilerplate in implementing a C++20 iterator. And especially for basic_const_iterator<I> where just about every operation is simply a pass-through to the underlying iterator. Only one function ends up having a body consisting of more than a single return statement.

Despite that, there’s one especially important aspect to implementing a basic_const_iterator<I> that adds complexity: conversions and comparisons. We have this expectation that a range’s mutable iterator is convertible to its constant iterator. That is, given any type R such range<R> and range<R const> both hold, that iterator_t<R> is convertible to iterator_t<R const>. For example, we expect vector<T>::iterator to be convertible to vector<T>::const_iterator, and likewise for any other container or view.

Adding the concept of a const_iterator further complicates matters because now we have the following cross-convertibility and cross-comparability graph:

A black arrow from T to U indicates that T needs to be convertible to U, while the blue bidirectional dotted arrows between T and U indicate that equality_comparable_with<T, U> holds (i.e. not only that the types can be compared with == and != but also that there is a common type between them). That is, every pair of types here needs to model equality_comparable_with.

Even though iterator_t<R const> and const_iterator<iterator_t<R>> are not convertible to each other, they still have a common type that both are convertible to (const_iterator<iterator_t<R const>>) which also needs to be reflected.

The implementation of basic_const_iterator<I> needs to properly support this graph: which means ensuring the right set of constructors, comparison operators, and even specializations of common_type.

The same sort of idea holds for sentinels. How would we wrap sentinels? Imagine a hypothetical const_sentinel<I, S>. It would have to have the following behavior:

Because iterator_t<R const> would be comparable to sentinel_t<R>, it needs to follow that const_iterator<iterator_t<R>> needs to be comparable to sentinel_t<R> as well. That is, sentinel_for<const_iterator<I>, S> needs to hold whenever sentinel_for<I, S> holds. This begs the question of if we need a const_sentinel<I, S> type at all, given that we need to support comparisons to the unwrapped sentinel anyway. It’s a complex interplay of types to get right, and it doesn’t seem like a const_sentinel type adds value for us at all. Hopefully, we don’t find a problem that necessitates wrapping in the future (c.f. [LWG3386]).

The tricky part of the implementation is to avoid constraint recursion in ensuring that wrapped random access iterators are totally ordered and ensuring that wrapped sized sentinels are still sized sentinels. A first attempt at attempting to define an operator<=> for basic_const_iterator<I> might start with:

template <std::input_iterator It>
struct basic_const_iterator {
    template <std::totally_ordered_with<It> Rhs>
        requires std::random_access_iterator<It>
    auto operator<=>(Rhs const& rhs) const;
};

But when checking to see if totally_ordered<basic_const_iterator<int*>>, we would check to see if we can instantiate operator<=>, which requires checking if totally_ordered_with<basic_const_iterator<int*>, basic_const_iterator<int*>> (since Rhs is our same type), which itself requires checking totally_ordered<basic_const_iterator<int*>>. And now we’ve completed the cycle.

The way I chose to handle this problem is to split the implementation into two functions: a same-type, non-template comparison and a template that is constrained on different types:

template <std::input_iterator It>
struct basic_const_iterator {
    auto operator<=>(basic_const_iterator const& rhs) const
        requires std::random_access_iterator<It>;

    template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> Rhs>
        requires std::random_access_iterator<It>
             and std::totally_ordered_with<It, Rhs>
    auto operator<=>(Rhs const& rhs) const;
};

Other things to note about this implementation:

1. Providing iterator_concept = contiguous_iterator_tag; ensures that wrapping a contiguous mutable iterator produces a contiguous constant iterator.
2. Only providing iterator_category for forward_iterators ensures that we correctly handle C++20 input iterators (more on this later, and see also [P2259R0]).
3. The spelling of the reference type for this iterator, described earlier.

template <typename It> struct iterator_concept_for { };
template <typename It> requires std::contiguous_iterator<It>
struct iterator_concept_for<It> {
    using iterator_concept = std::contiguous_iterator_tag;
};

template <typename It> struct iterator_category_for { };
template <std::forward_iterator It>
struct iterator_category_for<It> {
    using iterator_category = typename std::iterator_traits<It>::iterator_category;
};

template <std::input_iterator It>
class basic_const_iterator : public iterator_concept_for<It>
                           , public iterator_category_for<It>
{
    It it;

public:
    using value_type = std::iter_value_t<It>;
    using difference_type = std::iter_difference_t<It>;
    using reference = const_ref_for<It>;

    basic_const_iterator() = default;
    basic_const_iterator(It it) : it(std::move(it)) { }
    template <std::convertible_to<It> U>
    basic_const_iterator(basic_const_iterator<U> c) : it(std::move(c.base())) { }
    basic_const_iterator(std::convertible_to<It> auto&& c) : it(FWD(c)) { }

    auto operator++() -> basic_const_iterator& { ++it; return *this; }
    auto operator++(int) -> basic_const_iterator requires std::forward_iterator<It> { auto cpy = *this; ++*this; return cpy; }
    void operator++(int) { ++*this; }

    auto operator--() -> basic_const_iterator& requires std::bidirectional_iterator<It> { --it; return *this; }
    auto operator--(int) -> basic_const_iterator requires std::bidirectional_iterator<It> { auto cpy = *this; --*this; return cpy; }

    auto operator+(difference_type n) const -> basic_const_iterator requires std::random_access_iterator<It> { return basic_const_iterator(it + n); }
    auto operator-(difference_type n) const -> basic_const_iterator requires std::random_access_iterator<It> { return basic_const_iterator(it - n); }
    friend auto operator+(difference_type n, basic_const_iterator const& rhs) -> basic_const_iterator { return rhs + n; }
    auto operator+=(difference_type n) -> basic_const_iterator& requires std::random_access_iterator<It> { it += n; return *this; }
    auto operator-=(difference_type n) -> basic_const_iterator& requires std::random_access_iterator<It> { it -= n; return *this; }
    auto operator-(basic_const_iterator const& rhs) const -> difference_type requires std::random_access_iterator<It> { return it - rhs.it; }
    auto operator[](difference_type n) const -> reference requires std::random_access_iterator<It> { return it[n]; }

    auto operator*() const -> reference { return *it; }
    auto operator->() const -> value_type const* requires std::contiguous_iterator<It> { return std::to_address(it); }

    template <sentinel_for<It> S>
    auto operator==(S const& s) const -> bool {
        return it == s;
    }

    auto operator<=>(basic_const_iterator const& rhs) const requires std::random_access_iterator<It> {
        return it <=> rhs;
    }

    template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> Rhs>
        requires std::random_access_iterator<It>
             and std::totally_ordered_with<It, Rhs>
    auto operator<=>(Rhs const& rhs) const {
        if constexpr (std::three_way_comparable_with<It, Rhs>) {
            return it <=> rhs;
        } else if constexpr (std::sized_sentinel_for<Rhs, It>) {
            return (it - rhs) <=> 0;
        } else {
            if (it < rhs) return std::strong_ordering::less;
            if (rhs < it) return std::strong_ordering::greater;
            return std::strong_ordering::equal;
        }
    }

    template <std::sized_sentinel_for<It> S>
    auto operator-(S const& s) const -> std::iter_difference_t<It> {
        return it - s;
    }

    template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> S>
        requires std::sized_sentinel_for<S, It>
    friend auto operator-(S const& s, basic_const_iterator const& rhs) -> std::iter_difference_t<It> {
        return s - rhs.it;
    }

    auto base() -> It& { return it; }
    auto base() const -> It const& { return it; }
};

template <typename T, std::common_with<T> U>
struct std::common_type<basic_const_iterator<T>, U> {
    using type = basic_const_iterator<std::common_type_t<T, U>>;
};
template <typename T, std::common_with<T> U>
struct std::common_type<U, basic_const_iterator<T>> {
    using type = basic_const_iterator<std::common_type_t<T, U>>;
};
template <typename T, std::common_with<T> U>
struct std::common_type<basic_const_iterator<T>, basic_const_iterator<U>> {
    using type = basic_const_iterator<std::common_type_t<T, U>>;
};

Since the above implementation satisfies the requirements for a sentinel where appropriate, we can complete our implementation by providing a make_const_sentinel to mirror the make_const_iterator shown earlier:

template <typename S>
constexpr auto make_const_sentinel(S s) {
    if constexpr (std::input_iterator<S>) {
        // the sentinel here is an iterator in its own right, so we need to (possibly) wrap it the same way
        return make_const_iterator(std::move(s));
    } else {
        return s;
    }
}

We could take the iterator type as a template parameter to enforce that S satisfies sentinel_for<I>, but this function is only used as a building block of an algorithm that would already enforce this, so it’s probably not necessary.

3.4 Better Algorithms for std::ranges::cbegin and std::ranges::end

std::ranges::cbegin today (26.3.4 [range.access.cbegin]) unconditionally calls std::ranges::begin. Similarly, std::cbegin today (25.7 [iterator.range]) unconditionally calls std::begin. The status quo in the library is that nothing anywhere invokes member cbegin. The goal is to provide a constant iterator version of begin() — we have not had a customization point for this facility in the past and we can achieve this goal without having to add a customization point for the future.

With the above pieces, we implement a ranges::cbegin and ranges::end to ensure that we get a constant iterator (see full implementation [const-impl], complete with many tests):

inline constexpr auto possibly_const = []<std::ranges::range R>(R& r) -> auto& {
    // we only cast to const if it is meaningful to do so
    if constexpr (constant-range<R const> and not constant-range<R>) {
        return const_cast<R const&>(r);
    } else {
        return r;
    }
};

inline constexpr auto cbegin = first_of(
    // 1. non-borrowed rvalue
    delete_if_nonborrowed_rvalue,
    // 2. possibly-wrapped begin of possibly-const-range r
    [](std::ranges::range auto&& r)
        RETURNS(make_const_iterator(std::ranges::begin(possibly_const(r))))
);

inline constexpr auto cend = first_of(
    // 1. non-borrowed rvalue
    delete_if_nonborrowed_rvalue,
    // 2. possibly-wrapped end of possibly-const-range r
    [](std::ranges::range auto&& r)
        RETURNS(make_const_sentinel(std::ranges::end(possibly_const(r))))
);

Here, cbegin(r) and cend(r) produce a range that is top-level const over any underlying range, without having to modify any of those underlying ranges to opt in to this behavior. This works for std::vector<int> and std::span<int> and boost::iterator_range<int*> and even views like std::ranges::filter_view (possibly_const ensures that if get passed a non-const vector<int>, we treat it as const first — which is both valid and necessary — while filter_view const isn’t a range so we cannot treat it as const first).

Avoiding a customization point here lets us give an easy answer to the question of whether or not types should provide a member cbegin going forward: no, they shouldn’t. Users that want a constant iterator can use this facility, which will work for all ranges.

In addition to simply working across all ranges, it has a few other features worth noting:

• For a vector<int> v, cbegin(v) gives precisely the type vector<int>::const_iterator (not const_iterator<vector<int>::iterator>).
• For a span<int> s, cbegin(s) provides a contiguous iterator over int const&, not just any kind of iterator.
• For a transform_view<V, F>, we avoid casting to const, since it doesn’t do anything for us. But for a single_view<T> (which is an owning view and thus deep const), we do cast to const.

Note that here, ranges::end already checks that the type returned is a sentinel for the type returned by ranges::begin. Given that fact, the implementation here already ensures that sentinel_for<decltype(cbegin(r)), decltype(cend(r))> holds.

3.5 A views::as_const

A whole const-view can be implemented on top of these pieces, in the same way that views::reverse is implemented on top of reverse_iterator (see the full implementation [const-impl]):

template <std::ranges::input_range V>
    requires std::ranges::view<V>
class const_view : public std::ranges::view_interface<const_view<V>> {
    V base = V();
public:
    constexpr const_view() = default;
    constexpr const_view(V base) : base(std::move(base)) { }

    constexpr auto begin() requires (!simple-view<V>) { return cbegin(base); }
    constexpr auto end() requires (!simple-view<V>) { return cend(base); }
    constexpr auto size() requires std::ranges::sized_range<V> { return std::ranges::size(base); }

    constexpr auto begin() const requires std::ranges::range<V const> { return cbegin(base); }
    constexpr auto end() const requires std::ranges::range<V const> { return cend(base); }
    constexpr auto size() const requires std::ranges::sized_range<V const> { return std::ranges::size(base); }
};

template <typename V>
inline constexpr bool ::std::ranges::enable_borrowed_range<const_view<V>> =
    std::ranges::enable_borrowed_range<V>;

// libstdc++ specific (hopefully standard version coming soon from P2387!)
inline constexpr std::views::__adaptor::_RangeAdaptorClosure as_const =
    []<std::ranges::viewable_range R>(R&& r)
    {
        using U = std::remove_cvref_t<R>;

        if constexpr (constant-range<std::views::all_t<R>>) {
            return std::views::all(FWD(r));
        } else if constexpr (std::is_lvalue_reference_v<R>
                             and constant-range<U const>
                             and not std::ranges::view<U>) {
            return std::views::all(std::as_const(r));
        } else {
            return const_view<std::views::all_t<R>>(std::views::all(FWD(r)));
        }
    };

The three cases here are:

1. r is already a constant range, no need to do anything, pass it through. Examples are std::span<T const> or std::vector<T> const or std::set<T>. We specifically check all_t<R> rather than R to handle the case where R might be a view that is a constant range, but we have a const object that is a deep-const view (e.g. if r is a single_view<int> const, then views::all(r) would be a single_view<int> which is no longer a constant range).
2. r is not a constant range but std::as_const(r) would be. Rather than do any wrapping ourselves, we defer to std::as_const. Example is std::vector<T>. We explicitly remove views from this set, because views::all() would drop the const anyway and we may need to preserve it (e.g. single_view<T>). We only allow lvalue ranges (necessary in a post-[P2415R2] world) because rvalue ranges (like views) would also drop the const even if we added it.
3. r is neither a constant range nor can easily be made one, so we have to wrap ourselves. Examples are basically any mutable view.

To me, being able to provide a views::as_const is the ultimate solution for this problem, since it’s the one that guarantees correctness even in the presence of a range-based for statement:

for (auto const& e : r | views::as_const) { ... }

Or passing a constant range to an algorithm:

dont_touch_me(views::as_const(r));

3.5.1 Naming

As far as naming goes, obviously we can’t just call it views::const. range-v3 uses the name views::const_.

[P2278R0] used range-v3’s views::const_. [P2278R1] switched to views::as_const. The advantage of views::as_const is that it is a mirror of std::as_const, so sharing a name seems reasonable. Indeed, when ranges are involved, views::as_const is superior to std::as_const as it ensures immutable elements.

A recent LWg telecon [p2278-minutes] preferred the name views::all_const under the premise that views::as_const is too much like std::as_const and that users might think it applies const to the top-level range rather than each element. But, as [P2501R0] points out, views::all_const is… not a great name. While [P2278R2] used the name views::all_const, the main motivation of the all_meow naming was in conjunction with renaming [P2446R0]’s views::move to views::all_move, and that rename was driven by examples like this:

using namespace std::views;

std::vector<std::string> v1{"hello", "world"};
auto v2 = move(v1);       // OOPS: initializes a view to v1

Here, the user intended to std::move and now accidentally uses std::views::move. A very different outcome.

But this isn’t really the same level of issue for using std::views::as_const instead of std::as_const (indeed, it may even be an improvement to accidentally use the range adaptor here). The LEWG discussion on that paper suggested that the desire to avoid views::move was much stronger than the desire to avoid views::as_const, and the polling did not provide a clear direction for this adaptor.

As such, this revision (R3) reverts to [P2278R1]’s choice of name: views::as_const. This strikes me as the best name amongst the options.

3.6 What About std::cbegin and std::cend?

The above presents an implementation strategy for std::ranges::cbegin and std::ranges::cend.

But what about std::cbegin and std::cend? The problem is, while the former is C++20 technology and so can make use of the C++20 iterator model, std::cbegin is C++11 technology and so has to remain fixed with the C++11 iterator model. The biggest difference for these purposes has to do with input iterators.

In C++11, even for an input iterator, this is valid code:

auto val = *it++;

But in C++20, an input iterator’s postfix increment operator need not return a copy of itself. All the ones in the standard library return void. This is the safer design, since any use of postfix increment that isn’t either ignoring the result or exactly the above expression are simply wrong for input iterators.

Trying to be backwards compatible with pre-C++20 iterators is quite hard (again, see [P2259R0]), and the basic_const_iterator<It> implementation provided in this paper would not be a valid C++17 input iterator. Additionally, C++20 input iterators are required to be default constructible while C++17 input iterators were not.

On the other hand, is it critically important to have a constant iterator for a C++17 input iterator? You’re not going to mutate anything meaningful anyway.

A simple solution could have std::cbegin(c) pass through C++17 input iterators unconditionally, and otherwise do make_const_iterator(as_const(c).begin()) (i.e. the std::ranges::cbegin described above) for all iterators that are either C++20 iterators or C++17 forward iterators. This probably addresses the majority of the use-cases with minimal fuss.

Moreover, would we want to extend std::cbegin to also handle non-const-iterable ranges? This is technically doable:

template <typename C>
concept can_begin = requires (C& c) { std::begin(c); }

template <class C>
    requires can_begin<const C>
constexpr auto cbegin(const C& c) {
    // today's overload, but also conditionally wrap
}

template <class C>
    requires (can_begin<C> && !can_begin<const C>)
constexpr auto cbegin(C& c) {
    // fallback for non-const-iterable ranges
}

I negated the constraint to prefer the const C& overload even for non-const arguments.

But we didn’t introduce a C++20 iteration model to then go back and give us more work to keep two models in lock-step. The C++20 one on its own is hard enough, and is a better model. We should just commit to it.

We could consider doing something like:

template <class C>
constexpr auto cbegin(C const& c)
    requires requires { std::begin(c); }
{
    if constexpr (std::forward_iterator<decltype(std::begin(c))>) {
        return make_const_iterator(std::begin(c));
    } else {
        // leave input iterators (or... whatever) alone
        return std::begin(c);
    }
}

And similarly for std::cend. This isn’t entirely without peril: currently we say nothing about the constraints for std::cbegin(r); just that it calls r.begin(), whatever that is. There isn’t a requirement that this ends up giving an iterator and there’s no requirement that any of the operations that std::forward_iterator would check are SFINAE-friendly. I don’t know if we necessarily care about such (mis)uses of std::cbegin, but it is worth noting.

But what would we gain by making this change? Sure, std::cbegin(x) is now more likely to produce a constant iterator than it was before since we’re going to improve cases like span. But it still won’t work for non-const-iterable ranges (like drop_while or filter), or shallow-const input ranges, and has a chance to break existing code. As such, it doesn’t really feel worth doing, since std::ranges::cbegin simply works for all of these cases, so why not use that?

3.7 Now Reverse It

Now that we can produce a constant iterator for a range, producing a reversed constant iterator is a matter of composing operations. We don’t have to worry about sentinels in this case:

inline constexpr auto crbegin = first_of(
    // 1. non-borrowed rvalue
    delete_if_nonborrowed_rvalue,
    // 2. possibly-wrapped reversed begin of possibly-const-range range
    [](std::ranges::range auto&& r) RETURNS(make_const_iterator(std::ranges::rbegin(possibly_const(r))))
);

inline constexpr auto crend = first_of(
    // 1. non-borrowed rvalue
    delete_if_nonborrowed_rvalue,
    // 2. possibly-wrapped reversed end of possibly-const-range range
    [](std::ranges::range auto&& r) RETURNS(make_const_iterator(std::ranges::rend(possibly_const(r))))
);

Notably here, ranges::rbegin and ranges::rend already themselves will try to produce a std::reverse_iterator if the underlying range is bidirectional. Similarly, we’re ourselves trying to produce a std::const_iterator.

The extension to std::crbegin and std::crend mirrors the similar extension to std::cbegin and std::cend:

template <class C>
constexpr auto crbegin(C const& c)
    requires requires { std::rbegin(c); }
{
    if consetxpr (std::forward_iterator<decltype(std::rbegin(c))>) {
        return make_const_iterator(std::rbegin(c));
    } else {
        // leave input iterators (or... whatever) alone
        return std::rbegin(c);
    }
}

Even though in the standard library we define const_reverse_iterator as std::reverse_iterator<const_iterator> and the algorithm presented here constifies a reverse iterator, it still produces the same result for all standard library containers because rbegin() const returns const_reverse_iterator, so we already have a constant iterator just from rbegin.

3.8 Customizing make_const_iterator

The job of make_const_iterator(it) is to ensure that its result is a constant iterator that is as compatible as possible with it (ideally, exactly it where possible). For a typical iterator, I, the best we could do if I is a mutable iterator is to return a const_iterator<I>. But what if we had more information. Could we do better? Should we do better?

Consider char*. char* is not a constant iterator, and the make_const_iterator presented here will yield a const_iterator<char*>. But there is a different kind of constant iterator we could return in this case that satisfies all the complicated requirements we’ve laid out for how a constant iterator should behave, and it’s kind of the obvious choice: char const*. Returning const char* here does the advantage in that we avoid having to do this extra template instantiation, which is certainly not free.

The question is: should make_const_iterator(char*) yield a char const* instead of a const_iterator<char*>?

Let’s take a look at a test-case. Here is a contiguous range that is a null-terminated mutable character string:

struct zsentinel {
    auto operator==(char* p) const -> bool {
        return *p == '\0';
    }
};

struct zstring {
    char* p;
    auto begin() const -> char* { return p; }
    auto end() const -> zsentinel { return {}; }
};

You might think zentinel is a strange type (why does it compare to char* instead of char const* when it clearly does not need mutability), but the important thing is that this is a perfectly valid range. zsentinel does model sentinel_for<char*>, and zstring does model contiguous_range. As such, it is important that the facilities in this paper work; we need to be able to provide a constant iterator here such that we end up with a constant range.

But here, we would end up in a situation where, given a zstring z:

• cbegin(z) would return a char const*
• cend(z) would return a zsentinel (zsentinel is not an iterator, so we do not wrap it)

But while zsentinel models sentinel_for<char*> and I can ensure in the implementation of const_iterator<T> that zsentinel also models sentinel_for<const_iterator<char*>>, it is not the case that zsentinel models sentinel_for<char const*>. So we would not end up with a range at all!

It is possible to work around this problem by adding more complexity.

We could add complexity to make_const_sentinel, passing through the underlying iterator to be able to wrap zsentinel such that it performs a const_cast internally. That is, cend(z) would return a type like:

struct const_zsentinel {
    zsentinel z;

    auto operator==(char const* p) const -> bool {
        return z == const_cast<char*>(p);
    }
};

Such a const_cast would be safe since we know we must have originated from a char* to begin with, if the char const* we’re comparing originated from the zstring. But there are other char const*s that don’t come from a zstring, that may not necessarily be safe to compare against, and now we’re supporting those. This also doesn’t generalize to any other kind of make_const_iterator customization: this implementation is specific to const_cast, which is only valid for pointers. We would have to add something like a const_iterator_cast.

Let’s instead consider adding complexity in the other direction, to make_const_iterator. We can pass through the underlying sentinel such that we only turn char* into char const* if S satisfies sentinel_for<char const*>, and otherwise turn char* into const_iterator<char*>. We could make this more specific and say that we turn char*into char const* only if both the iterator and sentinel types are char*, but I don’t think the generalization that sentinel_for<char const*> is sufficient.

This direction can be made to work and I think, overall, has fewer problems with the other direction. That is, something like this:

template <typename S, std::input_iterator It>
    requires std::sentinel_for<S, I>
constexpr auto make_const_iterator(It it) {
    if constexpr (ConstantIterator<It>) {
        return it;
    } else if constexpr (std::is_pointer_v<It>
                     and std::sentinel_for<S, std::remove_pointer_t<It> const*>) {
        return static_cast<std::remove_pointer_t<It> const*>(it);
    } else {
        return basic_const_iterator<It>(it);
    }
}

But is it worth it?

A benefit might be that for a simple implementation of span, we could have this:

template <typename T>
struct simple_span {
    auto begin() const -> T*;
    auto end() const -> T*;

    auto cbegin() const -> T const*;
    auto cend() const -> T const*;
};

Which out of the box satisfies that simple_span<int>::cbegin() and cbegin(simple_span<int>) both give you an int const*. Whereas, with the design presented up until now, member cbegin and cend would have to return const_iterator<T*> instead.

I’m not sure it’s worth it. The simpler design is easier to understand. There’s something nice about make_const_iterator being able to act on an iterator in a vacuum, and being able to define cbegin simply as:

make_const_iterator(std::ranges::begin(possibly_const(r)))

As opposed to:

auto& cr = possibly_const(r);
make_const_iterator<std::ranges::sentinel_t<decltype(cr)>>(std::ranges::begin(cr))

and having to extend the alias template to:

template <std::input_iterator I, std::sentinel_for<I> S = I>
using const_iterator = decltype(make_const_iterator<S>(std::declval<I>()));

which still allows std::const_iterator<int const*> to be int const*. But I’m not sure it’s worth it for just the pointer case for just being able to define simple_span. In this model, simple_span wouldn’t even need to define member cbegin/cend, so why would it do so, and provide something different?

I could be convinced otherwise though.

3.9 What does this mean for span<T>?

There has been desire expressed to provide member cbegin for span<T>. This paper allows a meaningful path to get there:

template <typename T>
struct span {
    using iterator = implementation-defined;
    using const_iterator = std::const_iterator<iterator>;
    using reverse_iterator = std::reverse_iterator<iterator>;
    using const_reverse_iterator = std::const_iterator<reverse_iterator>;

    auto begin()   const noexcept -> iterator;
    auto cbegin()  const noexcept -> const_iterator;
    auto rbegin()  const noexcept -> reverse_iterator;
    auto crbegin() const noexcept -> const_reverse_iterator;

    // similar for end
};

The above design ensures that given a span<int> s (or really, for any T that is non-const):

1. std::ranges::begin(s) and s.begin() have the same type
2. std::ranges::cbegin(s) and s.cbegin() have the same type
3. std::ranges::rbegin(s) and s.rbegin() have the same type
4. std::ranges::crbegin(s) and s.crbegin() have the same type

All without having to add new customization points to the standard library. Notably, span<int>::const_iterator and span<int const>::iterator will not be the same type (which arguably a good thing). But span<int const>::iterator and span<int const>::const_iterator will be the same type (which is important).

The one tricky part here is const_reverse_iterator. For all the containers currently in the standard library, we define const_reverse_iterator as std::reverse_iterator<const_iterator>, but if we did that here, we’d end up with a mismatch in (4): crbegin(s) would return a const_iterator<reverse_iterator<iterator>> while s.crbegin() would return a reverse_iterator<const_iterator<iterator>>. We end up applying the layers in a different order.

But this is fine. None of these member functions are even strictly necessary, and there isn’t any need for future shallow-const views to provide them. If we want to duplicate already-existing functionality, we should just make sure that we duplicate it consistently, rather than inconsistently.

4 Act V: A Concluding Proposal

The status quo is that we have an algorithm named cbegin whose job is to provide a constant iterator, but it does not always do that, and sometimes it doesn’t even provide a mutable iterator. This is an unfortunate situation.

We can resolve this by extending std::ranges::cbegin and std::ranges::cend to conditionally wrap their provided range’s iterator/sentinel pairs to ensure that the result is a constant iterator, and use these tools to build up a views::as_const range adapter. This completely solves the problem without any imposed boilerplate per range.

However, std::cbegin and std::cend are harder to extend. If we changed them at all, we would probably punt on handling C++17 input iterators and non-const-iterable ranges. This means that std::cbegin and std::ranges::cbegin do different things, but std::rbegin and std::ranges::rbegin already do different things. std::ranges::rbegin is already a superior std::rbegin, so having std::ranges::cbegin be a superior std::cbegin only follows from that. In other words, std::cbegin is constrained to not deviate too much from its current behavior, whereas std::ranges::cbegin is new and Can Do Better.

Would it be worth making such a change to std::cbegin? I don’t think so, and this paper doesn’t propose any.

This paper also proposes adding member c{,r}{begin,end} to span and member c{begin,end} (but not cr{begin,end}) to ranges::view_interface so that all the range adaptors the standard library (and user-defined range adaptors) pick those up as well.

4.1 Wording

4.1.1 Span

Assuming we want to add member cmeow to span, the following would ensure that ranges::cmeow(s) and s.cmeow() all return the same thing. This effectively reverts [LWG3320]. [ Drafting note: While typically in the standard library, const_reverse_iterator is an alias for std::reverse_iterator<const_iterator>, here it is flipped, because ranges::rbegin will attempt to call member rbegin but ranges::cbegin will not. So this ensures that the algorithms and members reutrn the same thing ]

Add to the synopsis in 24.7.3.1 [span.overview]:

namespace std {
  template<class ElementType, size_t Extent = dynamic_extent>
  class span {
  public:
    // constants and types
    using element_type = ElementType;
    using value_type = remove_cv_t<ElementType>;
    using size_type = size_t;
    using difference_type = ptrdiff_t;
    using pointer = element_type*;
    using const_pointer = const element_type*;
    using reference = element_type&;
    using const_reference = const element_type&;
    using iterator = implementation-defined;        // see [span.iterators]
+   using const_iterator = std::const_iterator<iterator>;
    using reverse_iterator = std::reverse_iterator<iterator>;
+   using const_reverse_iterator = std::const_iterator<reverse_iterator>;
    static constexpr size_type extent = Extent;

    // ...

    // [span.iterators], iterator support
    constexpr iterator begin() const noexcept;
    constexpr iterator end() const noexcept;
+   constexpr const_iterator cbegin() const noexcept { return begin(); }
+   constexpr const_iterator cend() const noexcept { return end(); }
    constexpr reverse_iterator rbegin() const noexcept;
    constexpr reverse_iterator rend() const noexcept;
+   constexpr const_reverse_iterator crbegin() const noexcept { return rbegin(); }
+   constexpr const_reverse_iterator crend() const noexcept { return rend(); }

  private:
    pointer data_;              // exposition only
    size_type size_;            // exposition only
  };

  // ...
}

4.1.2 Iterators

Add to 25.2 [iterator.synopsis]:

#include <compare>              // see [compare.syn]
#include <concepts>             // see [concepts.syn]

namespace std {
  // ...
  // [insert.iterators], insert iterators
  template<class Container> class back_insert_iterator;
  template<class Container>
    constexpr back_insert_iterator<Container> back_inserter(Container& x);

  template<class Container> class front_insert_iterator;
  template<class Container>
    constexpr front_insert_iterator<Container> front_inserter(Container& x);

  template<class Container> class insert_iterator;
  template<class Container>
    constexpr insert_iterator<Container>
      inserter(Container& x, ranges::iterator_t<Container> i);

+ // [const.iterators], constant iterators and sentinels
+ template <indirectly_readable I>
+   using iter_const_reference_t = see below;
+ template<class Iterator>
+   concept constant-iterator = see below; // exposition only
+
+ template<class Iterator>
+   class basic_const_iterator;
+
+ template<class T, common_with<T> U>
+ struct common_type<basic_const_iterator<T>, U> {
+   using type = basic_const_iterator<common_type_t<T, U>>;
+ };
+ template<class T, common_with<T> U>
+ struct common_type<U, basic_const_iterator<T>> {
+   using type = basic_const_iterator<common_type_t<T, U>>;
+ };
+ template<class T, common_with<T> U>
+ struct common_type<basic_const_iterator<T>, basic_const_iterator<U>> {
+   using type = basic_const_iterator<common_type_t<T, U>>;
+ };
+
+ template<input_iterator I>
+   using const_iterator = see below;
+
+ template<class S>
+   using const_sentinel = see below;
+
+ template<input_iterator I>
+ constexpr const_iterator<I> make_const_iterator(I it) { return it; }
+
+ template<class S>
+ constexpr const_sentinel<S> make_const_sentinel(S s) { return s; }


  // [move.iterators], move iterators and sentinels
  template<class Iterator> class move_iterator;
  // ...
}

Add definitions for all this stuff in the new clause [const.iterators], ahead of [move.iterators]:

1 Class template basic_const_iterator is an iterator adaptor with the same behavior as the underlying iterator except that its indirection operator implicitly converts the value returned by the underlying iterator’s indirection operator to a type such that the adapted iterator is a constant iterator ([iterator.requirements]). Some generic algorithms can be called with constant iterators to avoid mutation.

2 Specializations of basic_const_iterator are constant iterators.

template <indirectly_readable It>
  using iter_const_reference_t = common_reference_t<const iter_value_t<It>&&, iter_reference_t<It>>;

template <class It>
concept constant-iterator = input_iterator<It>
                         && same_as<iter_const_reference_t<It>, iter_reference_t<It>>;

template <input_iterator I>
  using const_iterator = see below;

3 Result: If I models constant-iterator, I. Otherwise, basic_const_iterator<I>.

template<class S>
  using const_sentinel = see below;

4 Result: If S models input_iterator, const_iterator<S>. Otherwise, S.

template <class I>
  concept not-a-const-iterator = see below;

template <input_iterator Iterator>
class basic_const_iterator
{
    Iterator current_ = Iterator();

    using reference = iter_const_reference_t<Iterator>; // exposition only
public:
    using iterator_concept = see below;
    using iterator_category = see below; // not always present
    using value_type = iter_value_t<Iterator>;
    using difference_type = iter_difference_t<Iterator>;

    basic_const_iterator() requires default_initializable<Iterator> = default;
    constexpr basic_const_iterator(Iterator current);
    template <convertible_to<Iterator> U>
      constexpr basic_const_iterator(basic_const_iterator<U> current);
    template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> T>
        requires convertible_to<T, Iterator>
      constexpr basic_const_iterator(T&& current);

    constexpr const Iterator& base() const& noexcept;
    constexpr Iterator base() &&;

    constexpr reference operator*() const;
    constexpr const value_type* operator->() const
       requires is_lvalue_reference_v<iter_reference_t<Iterator>>
            && same_as<remove_cvref_t<iter_reference_t<Iterator>>, value_type>;

    constexpr basic_const_iterator& operator++();
    constexpr void operator++(int);
    constexpr basic_const_iterator operator++(int) requires forward_iterator<Iterator>;

    constexpr basic_const_iterator& operator--() requires bidirectional_iterator<Iterator>;
    constexpr basic_const_iterator operator--(int) requires bidirectional_iterator<Iterator>;

    constexpr basic_const_iterator& operator+=(difference_type n) requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
    constexpr basic_const_iterator& operator-=(difference_type n) requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;

    constexpr reference operator[](difference_type n) const requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;

    template <sentinel_for<Iterator> S>
    friend constexpr bool operator==(const basic_const_iterator& x, const S& s);

    friend constexpr bool operator<(const basic_const_iterator& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
      requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
    friend constexpr bool operator>(const basic_const_iterator& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
      requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
    friend constexpr bool operator<=(const basic_const_iterator& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
      requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
    friend constexpr bool operator>=(const basic_const_iterator& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
      requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
    friend constexpr auto operator<=>(const basic_const_iterator& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
      requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && three_way_comparable<Iterator>;

    template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> I>
      friend constexpr bool operator<(const basic_const_iterator& x, const I& y)
        requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
    template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> I>
      friend constexpr bool operator>(const basic_const_iterator& x, const I& y)
        requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
    template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> I>
      friend constexpr bool operator<=(const basic_const_iterator& x, const I& y)
        requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
    template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> I>
      friend constexpr bool operator>=(const basic_const_iterator& x, const I& y)
        requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
    template <not-a-const-iterator I>
      friend constexpr bool operator<(const I& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
        requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
    template <not-a-const-iterator I>
      friend constexpr bool operator>(const I& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
        requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
    template <not-a-const-iterator I>
      friend constexpr bool operator<=(const I& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
        requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
    template <not-a-const-iterator I>
      friend constexpr bool operator>=(const I& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
        requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
    template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> I>
      friend constexpr auto operator<=>(const basic_const_iterator& x, const I& y)
        requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>
              && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>
              && three_way_comparable_with<Iterator, I>;

    friend constexpr basic_const_iterator operator+(const basic_const_iterator& i, difference_type n)
      requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
    friend constexpr basic_const_iterator operator+(difference_type n, const basic_const_iterator& i)
      requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
    friend constexpr basic_const_iterator operator-(const basic_const_iterator& i, difference_type n)
      requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
    template <sized_sentinel_for<Iterator> S>
      friend constexpr difference_type operator-(const basic_const_iterator& x, const S& y);
    template <sized_sentinel_for<Iterator> S>
        requires different-from<S, basic_const_iterator>
      friend constexpr difference_type operator-(const S& x, const basic_const_iterator& y);
};

5 Given some type I, the concept not-a-const-iterator is defined as false if I is a specialization of basic_const_iterator and true otherwise.

6 basic_const_iterator<Iterator>::iterator_concept is defined as follows:

• (6.1) If Iterator models contiguous_iterator, then iterator_concept denotes contiguous_iterator_tag.
• (6.2) Otherwise, if Iterator models random_access_iterator, then iterator_concept denotes random_access_iterator_tag.
• (6.3) Otherwise, if Iterator models bidirectional_iterator, then iterator_concept denotes bidirectional_iterator_tag.
• (6.4) Otherwise, if Iterator models forward_iterator, then iterator_concept denotes forward_iterator_tag.
• (6.5) Otherwise, iterator_concept denotes input_iterator_tag.

7 The member typedef-name iterator_category is defined if and only if Iterator models forward_iterator. In that case, basic_const_iterator<Iterator>::iterator_category denotes the type iterator_traits<Iterator>::iterator_category.

constexpr basic_const_iterator(Iterator current);

8 Effects: Initializes current_ with std::move(current).

template <convertible_to<Iterator> U>
  constexpr basic_const_iterator(basic_const_iterator<U> current);

9 Effects: Initializes current_ with std::move(current.current_).

template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> T>
    requires convertible_to<T, Iterator>
  constexpr basic_const_iterator(T&& current);

10 Effects: Initializes current_ with std::forward<T>(current).

constexpr const Iterator& base() const& noexcept;

11 Effects: Equivalent to: return current_;

constexpr Iterator base() &&;

12 Effects: Equivalent to: return std::move(current_);

constexpr reference operator*() const;

13 Effects: Equivalent to: return static_cast<reference>(*current_);

constexpr const value_type* operator->() const
  requires is_lvalue_reference_v<iter_reference_t<Iterator>>
       && same_as<remove_cvref_t<iter_reference_t<Iterator>>, value_type>;

14 Returns: If Iterator models contiguous_iterator, to_address(current_); otherwise, addressof(*current_).

constexpr basic_const_iterator& operator++();

15 Effects: Equivalent to:

++current_;
return *this;

constexpr void operator++(int);

16 Effects: Equivalent to: ++current_;

constexpr basic_const_iterator operator++(int) requires forward_iterator<Iterator>;

17 Effects: Equivalent to:

auto tmp = *this;
++*this;
return tmp;

constexpr basic_const_iterator& operator--() requires bidirectional_iterator<Iterator>;

18 Effects: Equivalent to:

--current_;
return *this;

constexpr basic_const_iterator operator--(int) requires bidirectional_iterator<Iterator>;

19 Effects: Equivalent to:

auto tmp = *this;
--*this;
return tmp;

constexpr basic_const_iterator& operator+=(difference_type n) requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
constexpr basic_const_iterator& operator-=(difference_type n) requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;

20 Let op be the operator.

21 Effects: Equivalent to:

current_ op n;
return *this;

constexpr reference operator[](difference_type n) const requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>

22 Effects: Equivalent to: return static_cast<reference>(current_[n]);

template <sentinel_for<Iterator> S>
friend constexpr bool operator==(const basic_const_iterator& x, const S& s);

23 Effects: Equivalent to: return x.current_ == s;

friend constexpr bool operator<(const basic_const_iterator& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
  requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
friend constexpr bool operator>(const basic_const_iterator& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
  requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
friend constexpr bool operator<=(const basic_const_iterator& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
  requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
friend constexpr bool operator>=(const basic_const_iterator& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
  requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
friend constexpr auto operator<=>(const basic_const_iterator& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
  requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && three_way_comparable<Iterator>;

24 Let op be the operator.

25 Effects: Equivalent to: return x.current_ op y.current_;

template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> I>
  friend constexpr bool operator<(const basic_const_iterator& x, const I& y)
    requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> I>
  friend constexpr bool operator>(const basic_const_iterator& x, const I& y)
    requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> I>
  friend constexpr bool operator<=(const basic_const_iterator& x, const I& y)
    requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> I>
  friend constexpr bool operator>=(const basic_const_iterator& x, const I& y)
    requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
template <different-from<basic_const_iterator> I>
  friend constexpr auto operator<=>(const basic_const_iterator& x, const I& y)
    requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>
          && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>
          && three_way_comparable_with<Iterator, I>;

26 Let op be the operator.

27 Returns: Equivalent to: return x.current_ op y;

template <not-a-const-iterator I>
  friend constexpr bool operator<(const I& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
    requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
template <not-a-const-iterator I>
  friend constexpr bool operator>(const I& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
    requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
template <not-a-const-iterator I>
  friend constexpr bool operator<=(const I& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
    requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;
template <not-a-const-iterator I>
  friend constexpr bool operator>=(const I& x, const basic_const_iterator& y)
    requires random_access_iterator<Iterator> && totally_ordered_with<Iterator, I>;

28 Let op be the operator.

29 Returns: Equivalent to: return x op y.current_;

friend constexpr basic_const_iterator operator+(const basic_const_iterator& i, difference_type n)
  requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;
friend constexpr basic_const_iterator operator+(difference_type n, const basic_const_iterator& i)
  requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;

30 Effects: Equivalent to: return basic_const_iterator(i.current_ + n);

friend constexpr basic_const_iterator operator-(const basic_const_iterator& i, difference_type n)
  requires random_access_iterator<Iterator>;

31 Effects: Equivalent to: return basic_const_iterator(i.current_ - n);

template <sized_sentinel_for<Iterator> S>
  friend constexpr difference_type operator-(const basic_const_iterator& x, const S& y);

32 Effects: Equivalent to: return x.current_ - y;

template <sized_sentinel_for<Iterator> S>
    requires different-from<S, basic_const_iterator>
  friend constexpr difference_type operator-(const S& x, const basic_const_iterator& y);

33 Effects: Equivalent to: return x - y.current_;

4.1.3 Ranges

[ Drafting note: constant-iterator is exposition-only while constant_range is not, largely on the basis that I’m aware of use-cases for the latter [coerce-const] but not the former. ]

Add to 26.2 [ranges.syn]:

#include <compare>              // see [compare.syn]
#include <initializer_list>     // see [initializer.list.syn]
#include <iterator>             // see [iterator.synopsis]

namespace std::ranges {
  // ...


  // [range.range], ranges
  template<class T>
    concept range = see below;

  template<class T>
    inline constexpr bool enable_borrowed_range = false;

  template<class T>
    concept borrowed_range = see below;

  template<class T>
    using iterator_t = decltype(ranges::begin(declval<T&>()));
  template<range R>
    using sentinel_t = decltype(ranges::end(declval<R&>()));
+ template<range R>
+   using const_iterator_t = const_iterator<iterator_t<R>>;
  template<range R>
    using range_difference_t = iter_difference_t<iterator_t<R>>;
  template<sized_range R>
    using range_size_t = decltype(ranges::size(declval<R&>()));
  template<range R>
    using range_value_t = iter_value_t<iterator_t<R>>;
  template<range R>
    using range_reference_t = iter_reference_t<iterator_t<R>>;
+ template<range R>
+   using range_const_reference_t = iter_const_reference_t<iterator_t<R>>;
  template<range R>
    using range_rvalue_reference_t = iter_rvalue_reference_t<iterator_t<R>>;

  // ...

  // [range.refinements], other range refinements
  template<class R, class T>
    concept output_range = see below;

  template<class T>
    concept input_range = see below;

  template<class T>
    concept forward_range = see below;

  template<class T>
    concept bidirectional_range = see below;

  template<class T>
    concept random_access_range = see below;

  template<class T>
    concept contiguous_range = see below;

  template<class T>
    concept common_range = see below;

  template<class T>
    concept viewable_range = see below;

+ template<class T>
+   concept constant_range = see below;

  // [view.interface], class template view_interface
  // ...

  // [range.reverse], reverse view
  template<view V>
    requires bidirectional_range<V>
  class reverse_view;

  template<class T>
    inline constexpr bool enable_borrowed_range<reverse_view<T>> = enable_borrowed_range<T>;

  namespace views { inline constexpr unspecified reverse = unspecified; }

+ // [range.const], constant view
+ template <input_range R>
+   constexpr auto& possibly-const-range(R& r) { // exposition only
+     if constexpr (constant_range<const R> && !constant_range<R>) {
+       return const_cast<const R&>(r);
+     } else {
+       return r;
+     }
+   }
+
+ template<view V>
+   requires input_range<V>
+ class as_const_view;
+
+ template<class T>
+   inline constexpr bool enable_borrowed_range<as_const_view<T>> = enable_borrowed_range<T>;
+
+ namespace views { inline constexpr unspecified as_const = unspecified; }

  // ...
}

Update ranges::cbegin in 26.3.4 [range.access.cbegin] [ Drafting note: The complicated formulation (here and throughout) avoids an extra move in the case that we don’t need to do additional wrapping ]:

1 The name ranges​::​cbegin denotes a customization point object ([customization.point.object]). The expression ranges​::​​cbegin(E) for a subexpression E of type T is expression-equivalent to Given a subexpression E with type T, let t be an lvalue that denotes the reified object for E. Then:

• (1.1) ranges​::​begin(static_cast<const T&>(E)) if E is an lvalue.
• (1.2) Otherwise, ranges​::​begin(static_cast<const T&&>(E)).

• (1.1) If E is an rvalue and enable_borrowed_range<remove_cv_t<T>> is false, ranges​::c​begin(E) is ill-formed.
• (1.2) Otherwise, let U be ranges::begin(possibly-const-range(t)). ranges::cbegin(E) is expression-equivalent to const_iterator<decltype(U)>(U).

2 [Note 1: Whenever ranges​::​cbegin(E) is a valid expression, its type models input_or_output_iterator and constant-iterator. — end note]

Update ranges::cend in 26.3.5 [range.access.cend]:

1 The name ranges​::​cend denotes a customization point object ([customization.point.object]). The expression ranges​::​​cend(E) for a subexpression E of type T is expression-equivalent to Given a subexpression E with type T, let t be an lvalue that denotes the reified object for E. Then:

• (1.1) ranges​::​cend(static_cast<const T&>(E)) if E is an lvalue.
• (1.2) Otherwise, ranges​::​cend(static_cast<const T&&>(E)).

• (1.1) If E is an rvalue and enable_borrowed_range<remove_cv_t<T>> is false, ranges​::cend(E) is ill-formed.
• (1.2) Otherwise, let U be ranges::end(possibly-const-range(t)). ranges::cend(E) is expression-equivalent to const_sentinel<decltype(U)>(U).

2 [Note 1: Whenever ranges​::​cend(E) is a valid expression, the types S and I of the expressions ranges::cend(E) and ranges::cbegin(E) model sentinel_for<S, I>. If S models input_iterator, then S also models constant-iterator. — end note]

Update ranges::crbegin in 26.3.8 [range.access.crbegin]:

1 The name ranges​::​crbegin denotes a customization point object ([customization.point.object]). The expression ranges​::​​crbegin(E) for a subexpression E of type T is expression-equivalent to Given a subexpression E with type T, let t be an lvalue that denotes the reified object for E. Then:

• (1.1) ranges​::​rbegin(static_cast<const T&>(E)) if E is an lvalue.
• (1.2) Otherwise, ranges​::​rbegin(static_cast<const T&&>(E)).

• (1.1) If E is an rvalue and enable_borrowed_range<remove_cv_t<T>> is false, ranges​::cr​begin(E) is ill-formed.
• (1.2) Otherwise, let U be ranges::rbegin(possibly-const-range(t)). ranges::crbegin(E) is expression-equivalent to const_iterator<decltype(U)>(U).

2 [Note 1: Whenever ranges​::​crbegin(E) is a valid expression, its type models input_or_output_iterator and constant-iterator. — end note]

Update ranges::crend in 26.3.9 [range.access.crend]:

1 The name ranges​::​crend denotes a customization point object ([customization.point.object]). The expression ranges​::​​crend(E) for a subexpression E of type T is expression-equivalent to Given a subexpression E with type T, let t be an lvalue that denotes the reified object for E. Then:

• (1.1) ranges​::​rend(static_cast<const T&>(E)) if E is an lvalue.
• (1.2) Otherwise, ranges​::​rend(static_cast<const T&&>(E)).

• (1.1) If E is an rvalue and enable_borrowed_range<remove_cv_t<T>> is false, ranges​::c​rend(E) is ill-formed.
• (1.2) Otherwise, let U be ranges::rend(possibly-const-range(t)). ranges::crend(E) is expression-equivalent to const_sentinel<decltype(U)>(U).

2 [Note 1: Whenever ranges​::​cend(E) is a valid expression, the types S and I of the expressions ranges::crend(E) and ranges::crbegin(E) model sentinel_for<S, I>. If S models input_iterator, then S also models constant-iterator. — end note]

Update ranges::cdata in 26.3.14 [range.prim.cdata]:

template<class T>
constexpr auto as-const-pointer(const T* p) { return p; } // exposition only

1 The name ranges​::​cdata denotes a customization point object ([customization.point.object]). The expression ranges​::​​cdata(E) for a subexpression E of type T is expression-equivalent to: Given a subexpression E with type T, let t be an lvalue that denotes the reified object for E. Then:

• (1.1) ranges​::​data(static_cast<const T&>(E)) if E is an lvalue.
• (1.2) Otherwise, ranges​::​data(static_cast<const T&&>(E)).

• (1.1) If E is an rvalue and enable_borrowed_range<remove_cv_t<T>> is false, ranges​::c​data(E) is ill-formed.
• (1.2) Otherwise, ranges::cdata(E) is expression-equivalent to as-const-pointer(ranges::data(possibly-const-range(t))).

2 [Note 1: Whenever ranges​::​cdata(E) is a valid expression, it has pointer to constant object type. — end note]

Add constant_range in 26.4.5 [range.refinements]:

6 The viewable_range concept specifies the requirements of a range type that can be converted to a view safely.

template<class T>
  concept viewable_range =
    range<T> &&
    ((view<remove_cvref_t<T>> && constructible_from<remove_cvref_t<T>, T>) ||
     (!view<remove_cvref_t<T>> &&
      (is_lvalue_reference_v<T> || (movable<remove_reference_t<T>> && !is-initializer-list<T>))));

7 The constant_range concept specifies the requirements of a range type whose elements are not modifiable.

template<class T>
concept constant_range =
    input_range<T> &&
    constant-iterator<iterator_t<R>>;

Add cbegin and cend to view_interface in 26.5.3.1 [view.interface.general]:

namespace std::ranges {
  template<class D>
    requires is_class_v<D> && same_as<D, remove_cv_t<D>>
  class view_interface {
  private:
    constexpr D& derived() noexcept {               // exposition only
      return static_cast<D&>(*this);
    }
    constexpr const D& derived() const noexcept {   // exposition only
      return static_cast<const D&>(*this);
    }

  public:
    constexpr bool empty() requires forward_range<D> {
      return ranges::begin(derived()) == ranges::end(derived());
    }
    constexpr bool empty() const requires forward_range<const D> {
      return ranges::begin(derived()) == ranges::end(derived());
    }

+   constexpr auto cbegin() {
+       return ranges::cbegin(derived());
+   }
+   constexpr auto cbegin() const requires range<const D> {
+       return ranges::cbegin(derived());
+   }
+   constexpr auto cend() {
+       return ranges::cend(derived());
+   }
+   constexpr auto cend() const requires range<const D> {
+       return ranges::cend(derived());
+   }

    // ...
  };
}

24.7.? As const view [range.as.const]

24.7.?.1 Overview [range.as.const.overview]

1 as_const_view presents a view of an underlying sequence as constant. That is, the elements of an as_const_view cannot be modified.

2 The name views::as_const denotes a range adaptor object ([range.adaptor.object]). Let E be an expression, let T be decltype((E)), and let U be remove_cvref_t<T>. The expression views::as_const(E) is expression-equivalent to:

• (2.1) If views::all_t<T> models constant_range, then views::all(E).
• (2.2) Otherwise, if U denotes span<X, Extent> for some type X and some extent Extent, then span<const X, Extent>(E).
• (2.3) Otherwise, if E is an lvalue, const U models constant_range, and U does not model view, then ref_view(static_cast<const U&>(E)).
• (2.4) Otherwise, as_const_view(E).

3 [Example:

template<ranges::constant_range R>
void cant_touch_this(R&&);

vector<char> hammer = {'m', 'c'};
span<char> beat = hammer;
cant_touch_this(views::as_const(beat)); // will not modify the elements of hammer

-end example]

24.7.?.2 Class template as_const_view [range.as.const.view]

namespace std::ranges {
  template<input_range V>
    requires view<V>
  class as_const_view : public view_interface<as_const_view<V>>
  {
    V base_ = V(); // exposition only

  public:
    as_const_view() requires default_initializable<V> = default;
    constexpr explicit as_const_view(V base);

    constexpr V base() const& requires copy_constructible<V> { return base_; }
    constexpr V base() && { return std::move(base_); }

    constexpr auto begin() requires (!simple-view<V>) { return ranges::cbegin(base_); }
    constexpr auto begin() const requires range<const V> { return ranges::cbegin(base_); }

    constexpr auto end() requires (!simple-view<V>) { return ranges::cend(base_); }
    constexpr auto end() const requires range<const V> { return ranges::cend(base_); }

    constexpr auto size() requires sized_range<V> { return ranges::size(base_); }
    constexpr auto size() const requires sized_range<const V> { return ranges::size(base_); }
  };

  template<class R>
    as_const_view(R&&) -> as_const_view<views::all_t<R>>;
}

constexpr explicit as_const_view(V base);

1 Effects: Initializes base_ with std::move(base).

4.1.4 Feature-test macro

Add the following macro definition to 17.3.2 [version.syn], with the value selected by the editor to reflect the date of adoption of this paper:

#define __cpp_lib_ranges_as_const 20XXXXL // also in <ranges>

5 Epilogue

Thanks to Tim Song for helping me work through the design and implementation details of this paper. Thanks to Peter Dimov and Tomasz Kamiński for insisting on design sanity (even as they insisted on different designs) and providing feedback. Thanks to Eric Niebler for having already solved the problem of how to come up with the right reference type for a const_iterator<It> in range-v3.

6 References