Iterator

Iterator:

Def:An iterator is any object that, pointing to someelement in a range of elements (such as an array or a container), has the ability to iterate through theelements of that range using a set of operators (with at least the increment (++) and dereference (*) operators).

最常见的iterator就是指针；实际上是指针概念的泛型化，它指向容器中的元素，能像指针一样增减，Iterator可以说是面向对象版本的指针，当然也包括指针本身。

Iterator的作用就是把算法与容器连接起来，算法指示间接的通过Iterator操作容器中的元素，算法本身与容器无关，所以说Iterator真的真的很强大，有木有。

迭代器根据其实现的功能分为五类：
Input

Forward

Bidirectional

RandomAccess

Output

Input and output iterators are themost limited types of iterators: they can perform sequential single-pass inputor output operations.

Forward iterators （读写）have all the functionality of input iterators（只读） and -if they are not constant iterators-also the functionality of output iterators（只写）, although they are limited to one direction in which toiterate through a range (forward). All standard containers supportat least forward iterator types.

Bidirectional iterators（读写） are like forward iterators butcan also be iterated through backwards.

Random-access iterators（读写） implement all the functionality of bidirectional iterators, and also have the ability to access rangesnon-sequentially: distant elements can be accessed directly by applying anoffset value to an iterator without iterating through all the elements inbetween. These iterators have a similar functionality to standard pointers(pointers are iterators of this category).
The properties of each iterator category are:

category				properties	valid expressions
all categories				copy-constructible, copy-assignable and destructible	X b(a); b = a;
				Can be incremented	++a a++
Random Access	Bidirectional	Forward	Input	Supports equality/inequality comparisons	a == b a != b
				Can be dereferenced as an rvalue	*a a->m
			Output	Can be dereferenced as an lvalue  (only for mutable iterator types)	*a = t *a++ = t
			default-constructible	X a; X()
			Multi-pass: neither dereferencing nor incrementing affects dereferenceability	{ b=a; *a++; *b; }
		Can be decremented	--a a-- *a--
	Supports arithmetic operators + and -	a + n n + a a - n a - b
	Supports inequality comparisons (<, >, <= and >=) between iterators	a < b a > b a <= b a >= b
	Supports compound assignment operations += and -=	a += n a -= n
	Supports offset dereference operator ([])	a[n]

总结：

迭代器是指针的泛化，它从这些指针的要求中抽象出来，允许 C++ 程序使用统一的方式来处理不同的数据结构。迭代器充当容器和泛型算法之间的媒介。算法被定义为对某一迭代器类型所指定的范围起作用，而不是作用于特定的数据类型。随后，算法可能会作用于任何满足迭代器要求的数据结构。迭代器有五个类型或类别，各自具有自己的要求和最终功能：

输出：向前移动，可以存储但不能检索值，由ostream 和 inserter 提供。

输入：向前移动，可以检索但不能存储值，由istream 提供。

向前：向前移动，可以存储和检索值。

双向：向前和向后移动，可以存储和检索值，由列表、集合、多重集、映射和多重映射提供。

随机访问：以任意顺序访问元素，可以存储和检索值，由向量、双端队列、字符串和数组提供。

可使用要求较高、因而需要更强大元素访问的迭代器来代替要求较低的迭代器。 例如，如果调用向前迭代器，则可使用随机访问迭代器来代替。