How to get last element of list?

Hello all, so I am trying to check for the last element in the list, but I don't know how. list.begin() is the first element, but list.end() is the one past the last element. Doing list.end()-- seems to give me an error. My thought of doing this is using a loop that will keep iterating until it hits the list.end(). When it does that I --iter to get the last element and initialize it as something else. However is there a shorter way of doing this?

What do you mean by "check for the last element"?

list.back() returns a reference to the last element. Is that what you want?

It looks exactly like what I want, but for some reason I am getting an error with this piece of code.

Code:

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for(list<string>::iterator iter = phrase.begin(); iter != phrase.back(); iter++){
                        ....code...
        }

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Code:

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error C2679: binary '!=' : no operator found which takes a right-hand operand of type 'std::basic_string<_Elem,_Traits,_Ax>' (or there is no acceptable conversion)

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Thanks for your help!

Because phrase.back() is not an iterator, it's a const reference. What are you trying to do? Why are you iterating through the list? phrase.back() gives you direct access to the last item so you can do, for example

Code:

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cout << phrase.back() << endl;

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Or are you trying to alter it?

rbegin() is the last element, assuming the list is not empty, otherwise it will equal rend().
Are you wanting to loop over all items except the last one?

Yes I am trying to loop through all the items except the last one.

If rbegin() is what I am looking for then this should work..but its not.

Code:

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for(list<string>::iterator iter = phrase.begin(); iter != phrase.rbegin(); iter++){
                  ...code
}

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you are trying to compare iterators of different types

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dnguyen1022

Yes I am trying to loop through all the items except the last one.

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I suggest something along these lines:

Code:

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if (!phrase.empty())
{
    list<string>::iterator end(phrase.end());
    --end;
    for (list<string>::iterator iter = phrase.begin(); iter != end; ++iter)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

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Yes, this would work perfectly, but why would my last code not work? Does rbegin() not reference to the last element of the list?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dnguyen1022

Yes, this would work perfectly, but why would my last code not work? Does rbegin() not reference to the last element of the list?

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Because rbegin returns a reverse iterator, which is a different type than a (normal/forward) iterator.

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Mats