Thread: Deleting an object while iterating

Hi,
I wrote this but I am not sure if is correct.

Code:

for (vector< vector<Point> >::iterator track = tracks_.begin(); track != tracks_.end(); track++) {
		if (track->empty()) { // if track is empty, remove it
			tracks_.erase(track);
			track++;
		}else {   //if there are points, deque
			track->erase(track->begin());
		}
	}

I have a vector of vector of points (2 ints) which I call tracks (1 track is 1 vector of points)
I want to check all the tracks and if they contain points then delete the first one otherwise delete the track. Is this correct?

Thanks in advance.

You are right to suspect that something is wrong. In order to avoid incrementing an invalidated iterator, you should write:

Code:

for (vector< vector<Point> >::iterator track = tracks_.begin(); track != tracks_.end();) {
    if (track->empty()) {
        track = tracks_.erase(track);
    } else { //if there are points, deque
        track->erase(track->begin());
        ++track;
    }
}

However, if the track has exactly one point, then you will end up with empty tracks that are left in the vector. If that is undesirable, I suggest:

Code:

for (vector< vector<Point> >::iterator track = tracks_.begin(), end = tracks_.end(); track != end; ++track) {
    if (!track->empty()) {
        track->erase(track->begin());
    }
}

tracks_.erase(std::remove(tracks_.begin(), tracks_.end(), vector<Point>()), tracks_.end());
// or use std::remove_if with a predicate that calls the empty member function.

It worked
I barely ask questions here, but somehow you are the one who always solves them Thanks a lot.