C++ 疑难杂症一——奇怪的 vector＜bool＞

问题描述

在增强 for 循环中，遍历 vector<int> 和 vector<bool>，并通过引用修改数组中的每个元素：

遍历 int 的代码不会报错：

std::vector<std::vector<int>> arr{{1, 0, 0}, {0, 0, 0}};
for (auto & rows : arr) {
    for (int & tmp : rows) {
        tmp = 0;
    }
}

然而，如果将 int 替换为 bool：

std::vector<std::vector<bool>> arr{{1, 0, 0}, {0, 0, 0}};
for (auto & rows : arr) {
    for (bool & tmp : rows) {	// 报错：类型不必配！bool & tmp 为左值引用，rows 返回的类型为 std::__bit_iterator<std::vector<bool>>
        tmp = 0;
    }
}

报错信息

=> 则会报错：Non-const lvalue reference to type 'bool' cannot bind to a temporary of type 'std::__bit_iterator<std::vector<bool>, false, 0>::reference' (aka 'std::__bit_reference<std::vector<bool>, true>')

=> 即使将非常量引用，改为常量引用，也会有警告：Clang-Tidy: The type of the loop variable 'tmp' is different from the one returned by the iterator and generates an implicit conversion; you can either change the type to the matching one ('const std::__bit_iterator<std::vector<bool>, false, 0>::reference &' (aka 'const std::__bit_reference<std::vector<bool>, true> &') but 'const auto&' is always a valid option) or remove the reference to make it explicit that you are creating a new value

---

分析

上述报错表明语句在将一个临时对象绑定到一个非常（const）值的左值引用上，导致了类型不匹配。具体地，临时对象为 rows，类型为 vector<bool> &，而 tmp 则为 bool 类型的非常量左值引用。问题来了：为什么 vector<int> & 绑定到 int 类型的非常量左值引用可以，换做 bool 就报错了呢？

仔细看报错信息，临时对象的类型为 std::__bit_iterator<std::vector<bool>>，即 vector<bool>::iterator 返回的不是真正的 bool，而是 std::__bit_iterator<std::vector<bool>> ！

文档记载

实际上，en.cppreference.com 中对这点有记录：

bool 类型本身的大小随实现而定，但很多编译器中都是一个字节：

https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/types#:~:text=standard%20integer%20types.-,Boolean%20type,-bool%20%E2%80%94%20type%2C%20capable

然而，vector<bool> 从节省空间的角度（同时如果实现恰当的话还会加速执行时间），将数组中的每个元素实现成 1bit，而不是一个 sizeof(bool) bytes。

https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/container/vector_bool#:~:text=Allocator%3E%3B-,std%3A%3Avector%3Cbool%3E,bytes.,-std%3A%3Avector

其他

对于这一点，其他地方也都有相关的描述，有的将这种实现视为一种双刃剑，有的认为这是一种错误：

• paper “vector: More Problems, Better Solutions” http://www.gotw.ca/publications/N1211.pdf

• 个人博客 https://howardhinnant.github.io/onvectorbool.html

• StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8399417/why-vectorboolreference-doesnt-return-reference-to-bool

• cplusplus https://cplusplus.com/reference/vector/vector-bool/

• Specialization for bool [Wiki] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sequence_container_(C%2B%2B)&oldid=767869909#Specialization_for_bool

  The Standard Library defines a specialization of the vector template for bool. The description of this specialization indicates that the implementation should pack the elements so that every bool only uses one bit of memory. This is widely considered a mistake. vector<bool> does not meet the requirements for a C++ Standard Library container. For instance, a container<T>::reference must be a true lvalue of type T. This is not the case with vector<bool>::reference, which is a proxy class convertible to bool. Similarly, the vector<bool>::iterator does not yield a bool& when dereferenced. There is a general consensus among the C++ Standard Committee and the Library Working Group that vector<bool> should be deprecated and subsequently removed from the standard library, while the functionality will be reintroduced under a different name.

• boost https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_48_0/doc/html/container/Cpp11_conformance.html#container.Cpp11_conformance.Vector_bool:~:text=C%2B%2B03%20compilers.-,vector%3Cbool%3E,-vector%3Cbool

  boost 同时给出了替代的方法：

  So boost::container::vector<bool>::iterator returns real bool references and works as a fully compliant container. If you need a memory optimized version of boost::container::vector<bool> functionalities, please use Boost.DynamicBitset.

解决方案

• 使用 std::vector<char>
• 使用 std::bitset -> https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/utility/bitset
• 下载 boost 库 boost::container::vector<bool> -> https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_48_0/doc/html/container/Cpp11_conformance.html#container.Cpp11_conformance.Vector_bool