Can/Should I inherit from an STL iterator?

Question

Can/Should i inherit from STL iterator to implement my own iterator class? If no, why not?

Answer 1

If you're talking about std::iterator template, then yes, you should, but I hope you do understand that it has no functionality, just a bunch of typedefs. The pro of this decision is that your iterator can be fed to iterator_traits template.

If, on the other hand, you're talking about some specific STL iterator, like vector::iterator or other, then the answer is a resounding NO. Let alone everything else, you don't know for sure that it's actually a class (e.g. the same vector::iterator can be just typedefed as T*)