Write your own generator-backed iterator

suggest change

A common pattern in other languages is having a function that produces a “stream” of objects, and being able to use loop-code to loop over it.

We can model this in C++ as

template<class T>
struct generator_iterator {
  using difference_type=std::ptrdiff_t;
  using value_type=T;
  using pointer=T*;
  using reference=T;
  using iterator_category=std::input_iterator_tag;
  std::optional<T> state;
  std::function< std::optional<T>() > operation;
  // we store the current element in "state" if we have one:
  T operator*() const {
    return *state;
  }
  // to advance, we invoke our operation.  If it returns a nullopt
  // we have reached the end:
  generator_iterator& operator++() {
    state = operation();
    return *this;        
  }
  generator_iterator operator++(int) {
    auto r = *this;
    ++(*this);
    return r;
  }
  // generator iterators are only equal if they are both in the "end" state:
  friend bool operator==( generator_iterator const& lhs, generator_iterator const& rhs ) {
    if (!lhs.state && !rhs.state) return true;
    return false;
  }
  friend bool operator!=( generator_iterator const& lhs, generator_iterator const& rhs ) {
    return !(lhs==rhs);
  }
  // We implicitly construct from a std::function with the right signature:
  generator_iterator( std::function< std::optional<T>() > f ):operation(std::move(f))
  {
    if (operation)
      state = operation();
  }
  // default all special member functions:
  generator_iterator( generator_iterator && ) =default;
  generator_iterator( generator_iterator const& ) =default;
  generator_iterator& operator=( generator_iterator && ) =default;
  generator_iterator& operator=( generator_iterator const& ) =default;
  generator_iterator() =default;
};

live example.

We store the generated element early so we can more easily detect if we are already at the end.

As the function of an end generator iterator is never used, we can create a range of generator iterators by only copying the std::function once. A default constructed generator iterator compares equal to itself, and to all other end-generator-iterators.

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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