Erasing vector::end from vector

Question

Does it works correct(does nothing) when I use

 vector v;
 v.erase(v.end());

I want to use something like

 v.erase         


        

Answer 1

The standard doesn't quite spell it out, but v.erase(q) is defined, "Erases the element pointed to by q" in [sequence.reqmts]. This means that q must actually point to an element, which the end iterator doesn't. Passing in the end iterator is undefined behavior.

Unfortunately, you need to write:

auto it = std::find(...);
if (it != ) {
    v.erase(it);
}

Of course, you could define:

template typename
Iterator my_erase(Sequence &s, Iterator it) {
    if (it == s.end()) return it;
    return s.erase(it);
}

my_erase(v, std::find(v.begin(), v.end(), whatever));

c.erase() on an associative container returns void, so to generalize this template to all containers you need some -> decltype action.