CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++
Supy
Supy

Reputation: 390

C++ - Accessing private, nested iterator

I can't figure out how to solve this problem. My iterator constructors need to be private, so I use the container to return an iterator, but it refuses to compile.

A.h

class A {
    public:
        class iterator {
            friend class A;
            public:
                virtual ~iterator();
                iterator operator++(int);
                iterator operator--(int);

            private:
                iterator(int index, A container);
        };


        iterator begin();
        iterator end();

};

A.cpp

A::iterator A::begin(){
    return iterator(0, *this);
}

A::iterator A::end(){
    return iterator(length(), *this);
}

I then call it like this:

for(A::iterator i = a.begin(); i != a.end(); i++)
    std::cout << *i;

But that last block says that "A::iterator is private within this context". I have a feeling the iterator constructor is only being called outside of begin(), but I don't know how to fix it. I'm fairly new to C++, so any help would be appreciated!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1081

Answers (1)

Some programmer dude
Some programmer dude

Reputation: 409216

It's because the iterator class doesn't have a public constructor. You should implement a public copy-constructor (and probably a copy-assignment operator (see the rule of three)).

Upvotes: 4

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