string insert breaks iterator

I'm attempting to escape chars in a wstring by iterating over the string and inserting an escape character in the appropriate location. The function below is preparing INSERT statements for SQL by adding a single quote to existing single quotes in the string. ( e.g. ( ' ) becomes ( '' ) ). The odd thing is that all string insertions work as expected except on a single case where the error is given. The string that's giving the error isn't special in any way. There's a single quote in the middle of the string and string insert updates it as expected. But, after the insert the iterator is broken and on the subsequent dereferences the error is given.


Debug Assertion Failed!
Expression: string iterator not dereferencable.

Code:

---

        wstring str( "Some string with a ' single quote in it." )
        wstring::iterator iter;
        for( iter = str.begin(); iter != str.end(); ++iter )
        {
                if( *iter == L'\'' )
                {       
                        str.insert( iter++, L'\'' );                       
                }
        }

---

Any help is very much appreciated.

Andrew

It is fairly normal for iterators to be invalidated by modification of the string itself. If you consider that a string is basically a pointer to a chunk of memory, and the iterator is a pointer to some element in that memory. If you insert something, the string may well be moved to another chunk of memory - so now your pointer is no longer pointing to the same bit of memory as before.

I'd suggest you have two strings: the original and the modified one. When copy everything one character at a time, and modify the quotes by adding it twice to the new string. It's not the fastest method, but it will solve the problem, and unless you actually find that it's too slow, it should be fine.

--
Mats

The problem is that insertion might invalidate iterators. However, you should be able to do something like this:

Code:

---

wstring str( "Some string with a ' single quote in it." )
wstring::iterator iter;
for( iter = str.begin(); iter != str.end(); ++iter )
{
    if( *iter == L'\'' )
    {
        iter = str.insert( iter, L'\'' );
    }
}

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by matsp

I'd suggest you have two strings: the original and the modified one. When copy everything one character at a time, and modify the quotes by adding it twice to the new string. It's not the fastest method, but it will solve the problem, and unless you actually find that it's too slow, it should be fine.

---

Actually, it probably would be faster than inserting in the string itself, since each insertion involves moving the whole rest of the string over by one character.

As far as invalidating iterators, if you use indices instead of iterators your code won't break when the string gets reallocated.

Iterators in C++ are touchy when you modify the container they operate on. If you are changing the size of the container, (in this case, your string), your iterators are subject to immediately becoming invalidated.

Wow - that's a lot of immediate answers!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dino

Iterators in C++ are touchy when you modify the container they operate on. If you are changing the size of the container, (in this case, your string), your iterators are subject to immediately becoming invalidated.

---

Depends on the container. A std::map's iterators remain valid after an insertion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brewbuck

Actually, it probably would be faster than inserting in the string itself, since each insertion involves moving the whole rest of the string over by one character.

As far as invalidating iterators, if you use indices instead of iterators your code won't break when the string gets reallocated.

---

Aside from better suggestions by Daved and Laserlight, sure, it's certainly faster - but unless this is really a performance hotspot, I'd say it's unimportant to do that.

Using indices is not the C++ way - it makes it look like standard C, doesn't it? ;) [Being more of a C and C++ programmer, I quite like this idea - but I can see others at my work shooting it down pretty darn quickly].

--
Mats

Wow... I've never posted to a forum and gotten such an array of quality responses. Thank you to all of you for your expertise. I went from a dead-end to multiple roads in minutes.

I ended up doing this:

Code:

---

iter = str.insert( iter, L'\'' );        // basic_string<wstring>::insert() returns an iterator with the new position.
iter++;

---

Thanks again.
Andrew

Andrew, this forum is great if you have a SPECIFIC question about something concrete. Which is what you did - well done.

Ask woolly questions, and expect sarcastic/idiotic/funny/useless comments.

Ask for your homework to be done, and you get no real help until posting some code.

And of course, "You get what you ask for", so if you ask "Can I open a JPEG image", then the answer is undoubtedly "Yes, it can be done".

--
Mats

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndrewL

Wow... I've never posted to a forum and gotten such an array of quality responses. Thank you to all of you for your expertise. I went from a dead-end to multiple roads in minutes.

I ended up doing this:

Code:

---

iter = str.insert( iter, L'\'' );        // basic_string<wstring>::insert() returns an iterator with the new position.
iter++;

---

Thanks again.
Andrew

---

That's precisely one of the examples in Chapter 84. Prefer algorithm calls to handwritten loops
I could be wrong, but I think you could use something like std::inserter( str, iter ); for that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AndrewL

I ended up doing this:

---

Are you sure that increment is correct? You increment the iterator in the for loop, after all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cpjust

That's precisely one of the examples in Chapter 84. Prefer algorithm calls to handwritten loops
I could be wrong, but I think you could use something like std::inserter( str, iter ); for that.

---

std::inserter is an iterator adapter, not an algorithm, so on its own it cannot replace the loop.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by laserlight

Are you sure that increment is correct? You increment the iterator in the for loop, after all.

---

I believe it is correct - it skips over the just inserted extra quote character - otherwise you'd end up with an infinite loop that inserst an infinite number of single quotes.

--
Mats

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by matsp

I believe it is correct - it skips over the just inserted extra quote character - otherwise you'd end up with an infinite loop that inserst an infinite number of single quotes.

---

Oh yes, because the insertion happens before point that the iterator points to.

In that case I would point out that prefix increment is preferred.

If you want to avoid coding the loop manually:

Code:

---

#include <string>
#include <boost/algorithm/string/replace.hpp>

int main()
{
    std::wstring s(L"Some string with a ' single quote in it.");
    boost::replace_all(s, L"'", L"''");
}

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by laserlight

std::inserter is an iterator adapter, not an algorithm, so on its own it cannot replace the loop.

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I didn't mean that the whole loop should be replaced with std::inserter, but the piece of code that I quoted could be. I didn't want to look for a way to replace the whole loop because it would probably get too messy and didn't have time to figure it out.