STL iterator "de-referencing" question

Hey,

I was writing something and made the statement:

Code:

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return *(vector_name.end());

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And it threw a memory fault, changed it to

Code:

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return vector_name[vector_name.size() - 1];

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And it worked fine. I realize what the latter does, but my question is why the first one doesn't work? If I "dereference" the iterator, wouldn't it be the same as:

Code:

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object_name a;
return a;

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Or is there something different about iterators? I know you can use them by just dereferencing them as if they were pointers...but I've heard from a few people that they're not "really" pointers..but they act it, can anybody give me some insight here? I'd hate to make the same mistake again :(.

vectorname.end() points the past-the-end element of the vector. So basically, you should get undefined behavior. It's have the same behavior as: int v[5], then use v[5].

The correct one is:

Code:

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return *(vector_name.end()-1);

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Quote:

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Or is there something different about iterators? I know you can use them by just dereferencing them as if they were pointers...but I've heard from a few people that they're not "really" pointers..but they act it, can anybody give me some insight here? I'd hate to make the same mistake again .

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It depends on what kind of iterators you're using. Random Access Iterators, which vector class use, is just like the usual pointer. But if you have like input iterator or bidirectional iterator, then they're not really the same because for those, they can't do some pointer arithmatics with them.

A quick look at what map::end() returned would have answered this question.

It would be easier to write:

Code:

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return vector_name.back();

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Wow, I've used STL iterators many times...I can't believe I didn't see that.

<-- Feels like an idiot now o.o