Iterators are (potentially) invalidated by anything that could resize the vector (e.g., push_back).
You could, however, create your own iterator class that stored the vector and an index, which would be stable across operations that resized the vector:
#include <iterator>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
namespace stable {
template <class T, class Dist=ptrdiff_t, class Ptr = T*, class Ref = T&>
class iterator : public std::iterator<std::random_access_iterator_tag, T, Dist, Ptr, Ref>
{
T &container_;
size_t index_;
public:
iterator(T &container, size_t index) : container_(container), index_(index) {}
iterator operator++() { ++index_; return *this; }
iterator operator++(int) { iterator temp(*this); ++index_; return temp; }
iterator operator--() { --index_; return *this; }
iterator operator--(int) { stable_itertor temp(*this); --index_; return temp; }
iterator operator+(Dist offset) { return iterator(container_, index_ + offset); }
iterator operator-(Dist offset) { return iterator(container_, index_ - offset); }
bool operator!=(iterator const &other) const { return index_ != other.index_; }
bool operator==(iterator const &other) const { return index_ == other.index_; }
bool operator<(iterator const &other) const { return index_ < other.index_; }
bool operator>(iterator const &other) const { return index_ > other.index_; }
typename T::value_type &operator *() { return container_[index_]; }
typename T::value_type &operator[](size_t index) { return container_[index_ + index]; }
};
template <class T>
iterator<T> begin(T &container) { return iterator<T>(container, 0); }
template <class T>
iterator<T> end(T &container) { return iterator<T>(container, container.size()); }
}
#ifdef TEST
int main() {
std::vector<int> data;
// add some data to the container:
for (int i=0; i<10; i++)
data.push_back(i);
// get iterators to the beginning/end:
stable::iterator<std::vector<int> > b = stable::begin(data);
stable::iterator<std::vector<int> > e = stable::end(data);
// add enough more data that the container will (probably) be resized:
for (int i=10; i<10000; i++)
data.push_back(i);
// Use the previously-obtained iterators:
std::copy(b, e, std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, "\n"));
// These iterators also support most pointer-like operations:
std::cout << *(b+125) << "\n";
std::cout << b[150] << "\n";
return 0;
}
#endif
Since we can't embed this as a nested class inside of the container like a normal iterator class, this requires a slightly different syntax to declare/define an object of this type; instead of the usual std::vector<int>::iterator whatever;, we have to use stable::iterator<std::vector<int> > whatever;. Likewise, to obtain the beginning of a container, we use stable::begin(container).
There is one point that may be a bit surprising (at least at first): when you obtain a stable::end(container), that gets you the end of the container at that time. As shown in the test code above, if you later add more items to the container, the iterator your obtained previously is not adjusted to reflect the new end of the container -- it retains the position it had when you obtained it (i.e., the position that was the end of the container at that time, but isn't any more).
