What's wrong with passing C++ iterator by reference?

Question

I\'ve written a few functions with a prototype like this:

template 
int parse_integer(input_iterator &begin, input_iterato         


        

Answer 1

In general:

If you pass a non-const reference, the caller doesn't know if the iterator is being modified.

You could pass a const reference, but usually iterators are small enough that it gives no advantage over passing by value.

In your case:

I don't think there's anything wrong with what you do, except that it's not too standard-esque regarding iterator usage.