std::basic_fixed_string
Document #: | P3094R2 |
Date: | 2024-05-22 |
Project: | Programming Language C++ |
Audience: |
SG16 Unicode SG18 Library Evolution Working Group Incubator (LEWGI) Library Evolution Working Group |
Reply-to: |
Mateusz Pusz (Epam
Systems) <mateusz.pusz@gmail.com> |
reverse_iterator
support.consteval
.view()
member function.operator+
overloads that explicitly work with string literals and single
characters.array<charT, N>
.formatter
specialization removed
from synopsis as the fixed_string
type was added to the debug-enabled string type specializations.std::array
for storage chapter added..view()
replaced with a conversion operator to std::string_view
,std:integral_constant
replaced with the one that takes iterator and sentinel,operator==
specification improved,wchar_t
,
char8_t
,
char16_t
,
and char32_t
added.This paper proposes standardizing a string type that could be used at compile-time as a non-type template parameter (NTTP). This means that such string type has to satisfy the structural type requirements of the C++ language. One of such requirements is to expose all the data members publicly. So far, none of the existing string types in the C++ standard library satisfies such requirements.
This type is intended to serve as an essential building block and be exposed as a part of the public interface of quantities and units library proposed in [P2980R1]. All dimensions, units, prefixes, and constants definitions will use it to provide their textual representation.
fixed_string
is an established
practicefixed_string
is not just to
enable quantities and units library. There are plenty of home-grown
fixed_string
types in the wild
already. It is heavily used in low-latency finance, text formatting,
compile-time regular expressions, and many other domains.
Today, every project that wants to pass text as NTTP already provides its own version of such type. There are also some that predate C++20 and do not satisfy structural type requirements.
A quick search in GitHub returns plenty of results. Let’s mention a few of those:
Having such a type in the C++ standard library will prevent reinventing the wheel by the community and reimplementing it in every project that handles text at compile-time.
Such type should at least:
It does not need to expose a string-like interface. In case its
interface is immutable, as it is proposed in this paper, we can easily
wrap it with std::string_view
to get such an interface for
free.
fixed_string
design alternativesstring_view
-like interfaceWe could add a whole
string_view
-like interface to this
class, but the author decided not to do it. This will add plenty of
overloads that will probably not be used too often by the users of this
particular type anyway. Doing that will also add a maintenance burden to
keep it consistent with all other string-like types in the library.
If the user needs to obtain a
string_view
-like interface to work
with this type, then std::string_view
itself can easily be used to achieve that:
::basic_fixed_string txt = "abc";
stdauto pos = txt.view().find_first_of('b');
As stated above, this type is read-only. As we can’t resize the string, it could be considered controversial to allow mutation of the contents. The only thing we could provide would be support for overwriting specific characters in the internal storage. This, however, is not a common use case for such a type.
If passed as an NTTP, such type would be
const
at
runtime, which would disable all the mutation interface anyway.
On the other hand, such an interface would allow running every
constexpr
algorithm from the C++ standard library on such a range at compile
time.
Suppose we decide to add such an interface. In that case, it is worth
pointing out that wrapping the type in the std::string_view
would not be enough to obtain a proper string-like mutating interface.
As we do not have another string-like reference type that provides
mutating capabilities, we can end up with the need to implement the
entire string interface in this class as well.
This is why the author does not propose adding it to the first iteration. We can always easily add such an interface later if a need arises.
inplace_string
We could also consider providing a full-blown fixed-capacity string
class similar to the inplace_vector
[P0843R9]. It would provide not only full
read-write capability but also be really beneficial for embedded and
low-latency domains.
Despite being welcomed and valuable in the C++ community, the author
believes that such a type should not satisfy the current requirements
for a structural type, which is a hard requirement of this proposal. If
inplace_string
was used instead, we
would end up with separate template instantiations for objects with the
same value but a different capacity. This is why we should not consider
adding such a type to the library for now.
std::string
with a static storage allocatorWe could also try to use
std::string
with a static storage allocator, but this solution does not meet
structural type requirements and could be an overkill for this use
case.
Also, it would be hard or impossible to make the storage created at compile-time to be accessible at runtime in such cases.
std::array
for storageWe could consider using
std::array
instead, as it satisfies the current requirements for structural types.
However, it does not properly construct from string literals and does
not provide string-like concatenation interfaces.
[P2484R0] proposed extending support for class types as non-type template parameters in the C++ language. However, this proposal’s primary author is no longer active in C++ standardization, and there have been no updates to the paper in the last two years.
We can’t wait for the C++ language to change forever. For example,
the quantities and units library will be impossible to standardize
without such a feature. This is why the author recommends progressing
with the basic_fixed_string
approach.
As this type has sized fixed at compile time it can’t be empty upon
construction. This means that this type can’t provide the default
constructor. This also means that it does not satisfy the constraints of
the
std::regular
concept.
This constructor is the workhorse of
fixed_string
type. It will be called
by the users every time they want to pass string literals to NTTPs. This
is why the author proposes to make it implicit. Making the constructors
explicit would make the primary use case much more verbose:
Explicit
|
Implicit
|
---|---|
|
|
Typically, we agree on making the constructor implicit if:
Point 1. is satisfied as both a string literal and
basic_fixed_string
represent an
array of characters ended with
\0
.
Additionally, the author proposes to make this constructor
consteval
.
This should encourage calling it with string literals that by definition
end with \0
character and limit chances of passing a hand-made array of characters.
This approach got unanimous consent after discussion in LEWGI in Tokyo
2024. This approach also extends to all other functions taking the array
of charT
as parameters to improve
consistency and correctness.
As calling such an immediate function does not impose any runtime overhead, the construction of this type also satisfies point 2. above.
This constructor enables a few use cases that are hard to implement otherwise:
std::basic_fixed_string(static_cast<char>('0' + Value))
(used in mp-units)std::fixed_string{'V', 'P', 'B', (char)version}
(credit to Hana Dusíková)std::fixed_string{'W', 'e', 'i', 'r', 'd', '\0', 'b', 'u', 't', ' ', 't', 'r', 'u', 'e'}
(credit to Tom Honermann)There are at least two ways of passing a range to a string-like type in the C++ standard library:
basic_string
takes
from_range_t
as the first parameter
and
R&&
as the second one,basic_string_view
takes
R&&
as the only parameter.If we decided to go with the latter case, this constructor would
hijack the constructor taking the array of characters as a parameter.
This is why we would need to provide a bit different signature than
string_view
. Taking const R&
parameter would be good enough as move on character types is not faster
than a copy.
Moreover, this type owns its storage, so it is more similar to
basic_string
than the
basic_string_view
.
This is why the author decided to propose the first alternative that
uses from_range_t
as an additional
first parameter.
swap
Even though the type does not provide any string/container-like
interface to mutate the contents, they can still be changed with the
copy assignment operator. Not exposing this operator could be surprising
to many users. Also, as we have assignment probably it is good to also
provide a
swap()
member function for consistency with other types in the library.
simd
-like
size
During Tokyo 2024 discussion in LEWGI we took the following poll:
POLL: Do we want the
.size
member to be anintegral_constant<size_t, N>
(and.empty
to bebool_constant<N==0>
)?
SF WF N WA SA5 2 2 2 0
As a result, the R2 version of this paper introduces this practice
from the simd
type to
size
,
length
,
max_size
, and
empty
member functions.
In Tokyo 2024 we briefly discussed adding UDLs for this type. However, we decided not to do it as those strings are not massively used and typically are not created on the fly from literals in user’s code.
As there is a dedicated constructor that takes a string literal as an argument, this is a recommended way to initialize the object of this type from a string literal.
As of today, the C++ language requires a structural type to expose all its members publicly. This is why in the wording a public exposition-only data member is provided. However, we hope that the structural type requirements will be relaxed in the future and this data member will be possible to implement as a private data member in the future versions of the standard.
A modern practice is to expose operators as hidden friends and this
is what this type does. However, this is inconsistent with
string
and
string_view
which provide them as
regular non-member functions. Should we consider doing the same for
consistency?
swap
?All the containers (including
array
) provide non-member
swap
. However, in this case, it
seems that the default implementation of
std::swap
would suffice.
This particular interface is implemented, tested, and successfully used in the mp-units project. A complete implementation with tests can also be checked in the Compiler Explorer.
<version>
synopsis#define __cpp_lib_filesystem 201703L // also in <filesystem>
#define __cpp_lib_fixed_string YYYYMML // also in <fixed_string>
#define __cpp_lib_flat_map 202207L // also in <flat_map>
Editorial note: Adjust the placeholder value as needed so as to denote this proposal’s date of adoption.
(2.2) For
each charT
, the debug-enabled string
type specializations
template<> struct formatter<charT*, charT>;
template<> struct formatter<const charT*, charT>;
template<size_t N> struct formatter<charT[N], charT>;
template<class traits, class Allocator>
struct formatter<basic_string<charT, traits, Allocator>, charT>;
template<class traits>
struct formatter<basic_string_view<charT, traits>, charT>;
template<size_t N, class traits>
struct formatter<basic_fixed_string<charT, N, traits>, charT>;
Modify Table 78: Strings library summary:
Subclause
|
Header
|
|
---|---|---|
23.2 [char.traits] | Character traits | <string> |
23.3 [string.view] | String view classes | <string_view> |
23.4 [string.classes] | String classes | <string> |
[fixed.string] | Fixed size string classes | <fixed_string> |
23.5 [c.strings] | Null-terminated sequence utilities | <cctype> ,
<cstdlib> ,
<cstring> ,
<cuchar> ,
<cwchar> ,
<cwctype> |
2 Most classes specified in 23.4 [string.classes], 23.3 [string.view], [fixed.string], and 31 [input.output] need a set of related types and functions to complete the definition of their semantics. These types and functions are provided as a set of member typedef-names and functions in the template parameter traits used by each such template. Subclause 23.2 [char.traits] defines the semantics of these members.
3
To specialize those templates to generate a string, string view, fixed string, or
iostream class to handle a particular character container type
(3.10
[defns.character.container])
C
, that and its related character
traits class X
are passed as a pair
of parameters to the string, string view, fixed string, or iostream
template as parameters charT
and
traits
. If
X::char_type
is not the same type as C
, the
program is ill-formed.
2
[Note 1: The library provides implicit conversions from const charT*
and, std::basic_string<charT, ...>
, and std::basic_fixed_string<charT, ...>
to std::basic_string_view<charT, ...>
so that user code can accept just std::basic_string_view<charT>
as a non-templated parameter wherever a sequence of characters is
expected. User-defined types can define their own implicit conversions
to std::basic_string_view<charT>
in order to interoperate with these functions. — end note]
1
The header <fixed_string>
defines the basic_fixed_string
class
template that stores a read-only fixed-length sequences of char-like
objects and five typedef-names,
fixed_string
,
fixed_u8string
,
fixed_u16string
,
fixed_u32string
, and
fixed_wstring
, that name the
specializations basic_fixed_string<char>
,
basic_fixed_string<char8_t>
,
basic_fixed_string<char16_t>
,
basic_fixed_string<char32_t>
,
and basic_fixed_string<wchar_t>
,
respectively.
<fixed_string>
synopsis// mostly freestanding
#include <compare> // see [compare.syn]
#include <string_view> // see [string.view.synop]
namespace std {
// [fixed.string.template], class template basic_fixed_string
template<class charT, size_t N, class traits = char_traits<charT>>
class basic_fixed_string; // partially freestanding
// basic_fixed_string typedef-names
template<size_t N> using fixed_string = basic_fixed_string<char, N>;
template<size_t N> using fixed_u8string = basic_fixed_string<char8_t, N>;
template<size_t N> using fixed_u16string = basic_fixed_string<char16_t, N>;
template<size_t N> using fixed_u32string = basic_fixed_string<char32_t, N>;
template<size_t N> using fixed_wstring = basic_fixed_string<wchar_t, N>;
// [fixed.string.hash], hash support
template<size_t N> struct hash<fixed_string<N>> : hash<string_view> {};
template<size_t N> struct hash<fixed_u8string<N>> : hash<u8string_view> {};
template<size_t N> struct hash<fixed_u16string<N>> : hash<u16string_view> {};
template<size_t N> struct hash<fixed_u32string<N>> : hash<u32string_view> {};
template<size_t N> struct hash<fixed_wstring<N>> : hash<wstring_view> {};
}
1
The function templates defined in utility.swap and iterator.range are available
when <fixed_string>
is included.
basic_fixed_string
1
A specialization of
basic_fixed_string
is a contiguous
container storing a fixed-size sequence of characters. An instance
of basic_fixed_string<charT, N, traits>
stores N
elements of type
charT
, so that size() == N
is an invariant.
2
A fixed_string
meets all of the
requirements of a container (24.2.2.2
[container.reqmts])
and of a reversible container (24.2.2.3
[container.rev.reqmts]),
except that fixed_string
can’t be
default constructed. A fixed_string
meets some of the requirements of a sequence container (24.2.4
[sequence.reqmts]).
Descriptions are provided here only for operations on
fixed_string
that are not described
in one of these tables and for operations where there is additional
semantic information.
3
In every specialization basic_fixed_string<charT, N, traits>
,
the type traits
shall meet the
character traits requirements (23.2
[char.traits]).
[Note 1: The program is ill-formed if traits::char_type
is not the same type as charT
. —
end note]
4
basic_fixed_string<charT, N, traits>
is a structural type (13.2
[temp.param]) if
charT
and
traits
are structural types. Two
values fs1
and
fs2
of type basic_fixed_string<charT, N, traits>
are template-argument-equivalent if and only if each pair of
corresponding elements in fs1
and
fs2
are
template-argument-equivalent.
5
In all cases, [data(), data() + size()]
is a valid range and data() + size()
points at an object with value
charT()
(a
“null terminator”).
namespace std {
template<class charT, size_t N, class traits = char_traits<charT>>
class basic_fixed_string {
public:
[N + 1] = {}; // exposition only
charT data_
// types
using traits_type = traits;
using value_type = charT;
using pointer = value_type*;
using const_pointer = const value_type*;
using reference = value_type&;
using const_reference = const value_type&;
using const_iterator = implementation-defined; // see fixed.string.iterators
using iterator = const_iterator;
using const_reverse_iterator = reverse_iterator<const_iterator>;
using reverse_iterator = const_reverse_iterator;
using size_type = size_t;
using difference_type = ptrdiff_t;
// [fixed.string.cons], construction and assignment
template<convertible_to<charT>... Chars>
requires(sizeof...(Chars) == N) && (... && !is_pointer_v<Chars>)
constexpr explicit basic_fixed_string(Chars... chars) noexcept;
consteval basic_fixed_string(const charT (&txt)[N + 1]) noexcept;
template<input_iterator It, sentinel_for<It> S>
requires convertible_to<iter_value_t<It>, charT>
constexpr basic_fixed_string(It begin, S end);
template<container-compatible-range<charT> R>
constexpr basic_fixed_string(from_range_t, R&& r);
constexpr basic_fixed_string(const basic_fixed_string&) noexcept = default;
constexpr basic_fixed_string& operator=(const basic_fixed_string&) noexcept = default;
// iterator support
constexpr const_iterator begin() const noexcept;
constexpr const_iterator end() const noexcept;
constexpr const_iterator cbegin() const noexcept;
constexpr const_iterator cend() const noexcept;
constexpr const_reverse_iterator rbegin() const noexcept;
constexpr const_reverse_iterator rend() const noexcept;
constexpr const_reverse_iterator crbegin() const noexcept;
constexpr const_reverse_iterator crend() const noexcept;
// capacity
static constexpr integral_constant<size_type, N> size() noexcept;
static constexpr integral_constant<size_type, N> length() noexcept;
static constexpr integral_constant<size_type, N> max_size() noexcept;
static constexpr bool_constant<N == 0> empty() noexcept;
// element access
constexpr const_reference operator[](size_type pos) const;
constexpr const_reference at(size_type pos) const; // freestanding-deleted
constexpr const_reference front() const;
constexpr const_reference back() const;
// [fixed.string.modifiers], modifiers
constexpr void swap(basic_fixed_string& s) noexcept;
// [fixed.string.ops], string operations
constexpr const_pointer c_str() const noexcept;
constexpr const_pointer data() const noexcept;
constexpr basic_string_view<charT, traits> view() const noexcept;
constexpr operator basic_string_view<charT, traits>() const noexcept;
template<size_t N2>
constexpr friend basic_fixed_string<charT, N + N2, traits> operator+(const basic_fixed_string& lhs,
const basic_fixed_string<charT, N2, traits>& rhs) noexcept;
constexpr friend basic_fixed_string<charT, N + 1, traits> operator+(const basic_fixed_string& lhs, charT rhs) noexcept;
constexpr friend basic_fixed_string<charT, 1 + N, traits> operator+(const charT lhs, const basic_fixed_string& rhs) noexcept;
template<size_t N2>
consteval friend basic_fixed_string<charT, N + N2 - 1, traits> operator+(const basic_fixed_string& lhs,
const charT (&rhs)[N2]) noexcept;
template<size_t N1>
consteval friend basic_fixed_string<charT, N1 + N - 1, traits> operator+(const charT (&lhs)[N1],
const basic_fixed_string& rhs) noexcept;
// [fixed.string.comparison], non-member comparison functions
template<size_t N2>
friend constexpr bool operator==(const basic_fixed_string& lhs, const basic_fixed_string<charT, N2, traits>& rhs);
template<size_t N2>
friend consteval bool operator==(const basic_fixed_string& lhs, const charT (&rhs)[N2]);
template<size_t N2>
friend constexpr see below operator<=>(const basic_fixed_string& lhs, const basic_fixed_string<charT, N2, traits>& rhs);
template<size_t N2>
friend consteval see below operator<=>(const basic_fixed_string& lhs, const charT (&rhs)[N2]);
// [fixed.string.io], inserters and extractors
friend basic_ostream<charT, traits>& operator<<(basic_ostream<charT, traits>& os, const basic_fixed_string& str); // hosted
};
// [fixed.string.deduct], deduction guides
template<one-of<char, char8_t, char16_t, char32_t, wchar_t> CharT, convertible_to<CharT>... Rest>
(CharT, Rest...) -> basic_fixed_string<CharT, 1 + sizeof...(Rest)>;
basic_fixed_string
template<typename charT, size_t N>
(const charT (&str)[N]) -> basic_fixed_string<charT, N - 1>;
basic_fixed_string
template<one_of<char, char8_t, char16_t, char32_t, wchar_t> CharT, size_t N>
(from_range_t, array<CharT, N>) -> basic_fixed_string<CharT, N>;
basic_fixed_string
}
template<convertible_to<charT>... Chars>
requires(sizeof...(Chars) == N) && (... && !is_pointer_v<Chars>)
constexpr explicit basic_fixed_string(Chars... chars) noexcept;
1
Effects: Constructs an object whose value is that of
chars...
before the call followed by the
charT()
(a
“null terminator”).
consteval basic_fixed_string(const charT (&txt)[N + 1]);
2
Effects: Constructs an object whose value is a copy of
txt
.
3
[Note 1: The program is ill-formed if txt[N] != CharT()
.
— end note]
template<input_iterator It, sentinel_for<It> S>
requires convertible_to<iter_value_t<It>, charT>
constexpr basic_fixed_string(It begin, S end);
4
Preconditions: distance(begin, end) == N
.
5
Effects: Constructs an object from the values in the range
[begin, end)
,
as specified in 24.2.4
[sequence.reqmts].
template<container-compatible-range<charT> R>
constexpr basic_fixed_string(from_range_t, R&& r);
6
Preconditions: ranges::size(r) == N
.
7
Effects: Constructs an object from the values in the range
rg
, as specified in 24.2.4
[sequence.reqmts].
1 The following exposition-only concept is used in the definition of deduction guides:
template<typename T, typename... Ts>
concept one-of = (false || ... || std::same_as<T, Ts>); // exposition only
constexpr void swap(basic_fixed_string& s) noexcept;
1
Effects: Equivalent to swap_ranges(begin(), end(), s.begin())
.
2
[Note 1: Unlike the swap
function for other containers, basic_fixed_string::swap
takes linear time and does not cause iterators to become associated with
the other container. — end note]
constexpr const_pointer c_str() const noexcept;
constexpr const_pointer data() const noexcept;
1
Returns: A pointer p
such
that p + i == addressof(operator[](i))
for each i
in [0, size()]
.
2 Complexity: Constant time.
3 Remarks: The program shall not modify any of the values stored in the character array; otherwise, the behavior is undefined.
constexpr basic_string_view<charT, traits> view() const noexcept;
constexpr operator basic_string_view<charT, traits>() const noexcept;
4
Effects: Equivalent to: return basic_string_view<charT, traits>(data(), size());
template<size_t N2>
constexpr friend basic_fixed_string<charT, N + N2, traits> operator+(const basic_fixed_string& lhs,
const basic_fixed_string<charT, N2, traits>& rhs) noexcept;
constexpr friend basic_fixed_string<charT, N + 1, traits> operator+(const basic_fixed_string& lhs, charT rhs) noexcept;
constexpr friend basic_fixed_string<charT, 1 + N, traits> operator+(const charT lhs, const basic_fixed_string& rhs) noexcept;
5
Effects: Returns a new fixed string object whose value is the
joint value of lhs
and
rhs
followed by the
charT()
.
template<size_t N2>
consteval friend basic_fixed_string<charT, N + N2 - 1, traits> operator+(const basic_fixed_string& lhs,
const charT (&rhs)[N2]) noexcept;
6
Effects: Returns a new fixed string object whose value is the
joint value of lhs
and
rhs
.
7
[Note 1: The program is ill-formed if rhs[N2 - 1] != CharT()
.
— end note]
template<size_t N1>
consteval friend basic_fixed_string<charT, N1 + N - 1, traits> operator+(const charT (&lhs)[N1],
const basic_fixed_string& rhs) noexcept;
8
Effects: Returns a new fixed string object whose value is the
joint value of a subrange [lhs[0], lhs[N1 - 1])
and rhs
followed by the
charT()
.
9
[Note 2: The program is ill-formed if lhs[N1 - 1] != CharT()
.
— end note]
template<size_t N2>
friend constexpr bool operator==(const basic_fixed_string& lhs, const basic_fixed_string<charT, N2, traits>& rhs);
template<size_t N2>
friend constexpr see below operator<=>(const basic_fixed_string& lhs, const basic_fixed_string<charT, N2, traits>& rhs);
1
Effects: Let op
be the
operator. Equivalent to:
return lhs.view() op rhs.view();
template<size_t N2>
friend consteval bool operator==(const basic_fixed_string& lhs, const charT (&rhs)[N2]);
template<size_t N2>
friend consteval see below operator<=>(const basic_fixed_string& lhs, const charT (&rhs)[N2]);
2
Effects: Let op
be the
operator. Equivalent to:
return lhs.view() op std::basic_string_view<CharT, Traits>(rhs, rhs + N2 - 1);
3
[Note 1: The program is ill-formed if rhs[N2 - 1] != CharT()
.
— end note]
friend basic_ostream<charT, traits>& operator<<(basic_ostream<charT, traits>& os, const basic_fixed_string& str);
1
Effects: Equivalent to: return os << str.view();
template<size_t N> struct hash<fixed_string<N>> : hash<string_view> {};
template<size_t N> struct hash<fixed_u8string<N>> : hash<u8string_view> {};
template<size_t N> struct hash<fixed_u16string<N>> : hash<u16string_view> {};
template<size_t N> struct hash<fixed_u32string<N>> : hash<u32string_view> {};
template<size_t N> struct hash<fixed_wstring<N>> : hash<wstring_view> {};
1
If FS
is one of these fixed string
types, SV
is the corresponding
string view type, and fs
is an
object of type FS
, then hash<FS>()(fs) == hash<SV>()(SV(fs))
.
(rv);
X u= rv; X u
15
Postconditions: u
is equal
to the value that rv
had before this
construction.
16
Complexity: Linear for
array
and
basic_fixed_string
,
and constant
for all other standard containers.
.swap(s) t
48
Result:
void
.
49
Effects: Exchanges the contents of
t
and
s
.
50
Complexity: Linear for
array
and
basic_fixed_string
,
and constant
for all other standard containers.
65 The
expression a.swap(b)
,
for containers a
and
b
of a standard container type other
than array
and
basic_fixed_string
,
shall exchange the values of a
and
b
without invoking any move, copy,
or swap operations on the individual container elements.
1
Except for array
and
basic_fixed_string
,
all of the containers defined in 24
[containers],
19.6.4
[stacktrace.basic],
23.4.3
[basic.string], and
32.9
[re.results] meet the
additional requirements of an allocator-aware container, as described
below.
1
A sequence container organizes a finite set of objects, all of the same
type, into a strictly linear arrangement. The library provides four
basic kinds of sequence containers:
vector
,
forward_list
,
list
, and
deque
. In addition,
array
and
basic_fixed_string
are is provided as a sequence containers which
provides
limited sequence operations because it has they have a fixed number of
elements. The library also provides container adaptors that make it easy
to construct abstract data types, such as
stacks
,
queues
,
flat_maps
,
flat_multimaps
,
flat_sets
, or
flat_multisets
, out of the basic
sequence container kinds (or out of other program-defined sequence
containers).
.front() a
69
Result: reference
;
const_reference
for constant
a
.
70
Returns: *a.begin()
71
Remarks: Required for
basic_string
, basic_fixed_string
,
array
,
deque
,
forward_list
,
list
, and
vector
.
.back() a
72
Result: reference
;
const_reference
for constant
a
.
73 Effects: Equivalent to:
auto tmp = a.end();
--tmp;
return *tmp;
74
Remarks: Required for
basic_string
, basic_fixed_string
,
array
,
deque
,
list
, and
vector
.
[n] a
117
Result: reference
;
const_reference
for constant
a
118
Effects: Equivalent to: return *(a.begin() + n);
119
Remarks: Required for
basic_string
, basic_fixed_string
,
array
,
deque
, and
vector
.
.at(n) a
120
Result: reference
;
const_reference
for constant
a
121
Returns: *(a.begin() + n)
122
Throws: out_of_range
if
n >= a.size()
.
123
Remarks: Required for
basic_string
, basic_fixed_string
,
array
,
deque
, and
vector
.
Special thanks and recognition goes to Epam Systems for supporting Mateusz’s membership in the ISO C++ Committee and the production of this proposal.
The author would also like to thank Hana Dusíková and Nevin Liber for providing valuable feedback that helped him shape the final version of this document.