Convert iterator to pointer?

Question

I have a std::vector with n elements. Now I need to pass a pointer to a vector that has the last n-1 elements to a function.

F

Answer 1

here it is, obtaining a reference to the coresponding pointer of an iterator use :

example:

string my_str= "hello world";

string::iterator it(my_str.begin());

char* pointer_inside_buffer=&(*it); //<--

[notice operator * returns a reference so doing & on a reference will give you the address].

Answer 2

Use vector::front, it should be the most portable solution. I've used this when I'm interfacing with a fixed API that wants a char ptr. Example:

void funcThatTakesCharPtr(char* start, size_t size);

...

void myFunc(vector<char>& myVec)
{
    // Get a pointer to the front element of my vector:
    char* myDataPtr = &(myVec.front());

    // Pass that pointer to my external API:
    funcThatTakesCharPtr(myDataPtr, myVec.size());
}

Answer 3

If your function really takes vector<int> * (a pointer to vector), then you should pass &foo since that will be a pointer to the vector. Obviously that will not simply solve your problem, but you cannot directly convert an iterator to a vector, since the memory at the address of the iterator will not directly address a valid vector.

You can construct a new vector by calling the vector constructor:

template <class InputIterator> vector(InputIterator, InputIterator)

This constructs a new vector by copying the elements between the two iterators. You would use it roughly like this:

bar(std::vector<int>(foo.begin()+1, foo.end());

Answer 4

Vector is a template class and it is not safe to convert the contents of a class to a pointer : You cannot inherit the vector class to add this new functionality. and changing the function parameter is actually a better idea. Jst create another vector of int vector temp_foo (foo.begin[X],foo.end()); and pass this vector to you functions

Answer 5

That seems not possible in my situation, since the function I mentioned is the find function of unordered_set<std::vector*>.

Are you using custom hash/predicate function objects? If not, then you must pass unordered_set<std::vector<int>*>::find() the pointer to the exact vector that you want to find. A pointer to another vector with the same contents will not work. This is not very useful for lookups, to say the least.

Using unordered_set<std::vector<int> > would be better, because then you could perform lookups by value. I think that would also require a custom hash function object because hash does not to my knowledge have a specialization for vector<int>.

Either way, a pointer into the middle of a vector is not itself a vector, as others have explained. You cannot convert an iterator into a pointer to vector without copying its contents.

Answer 6

A safe version to convert an iterator to a pointer (exactly what that means regardless of the implications) and by safe I mean no worries about having to dereference the iterator and cause possible exceptions / errors due to end() / other situations

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string.h>

int main()
{
    std::vector<int> vec;

    char itPtr[25];
    long long itPtrDec;
    
    std::vector<int>::iterator it = vec.begin();
    memset(&itPtr, 0, 25);
    sprintf(itPtr, "%llu", it);
    itPtrDec = atoll(itPtr);
    printf("it = 0x%X\n", itPtrDec);
    
    vec.push_back(123);
    it = vec.begin();
    memset(&itPtr, 0, 25);
    sprintf(itPtr, "%llu", it);
    itPtrDec = atoll(itPtr);
    printf("it = 0x%X\n", itPtrDec);
}

will print something like

it = 0x0

it = 0x2202E10

It's an incredibly hacky way to do it, but if you need it, it does the job. You will receive some compiler warnings which, if really bothering you, can be removed with #pragma