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2 <html><head><title>A Few Coding Standards</title></head>
5 <table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
6 <tr><td> <font size=+5 color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino,Times,Roman"><b>A Few Coding Standards</b></font></td>
10 <li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a>
11 <li><a href="#mechanicalissues">Mechanical Source Issues</a>
13 <li><a href="#sourceformating">Source Code Formatting</a>
15 <li><a href="#scf_commenting">Commenting</a>
16 <li><a href="#scf_commentformat">Comment Formatting</a>
17 <li><a href="#scf_codewidth">Source Code Width</a>
18 <li><a href="#scf_spacestabs">Use Spaces Instead of Tabs</a>
19 <li><a href="#scf_indentation">Indent Code Consistently</a>
21 <li><a href="#compilerissues">Compiler Issues</a>
23 <li><a href="#ci_warningerrors">Treat Compiler Warnings Like Errors</a>
24 <li><a href="#ci_cpp_features">Which C++ features can I use?</a>
25 <li><a href="#ci_portable_code">Write Portable Code</a>
28 <li><a href="#styleissues">Style Issues</a>
30 <li><a href="#macro">The High Level Issues</a>
32 <li><a href="#hl_module">A Public Header File <b>is</b> a Module</a>
33 <li><a href="#hl_dontinclude">#include as Little as Possible</a>
34 <li><a href="#hl_privateheaders">Keep "internal" Headers Private</a>
36 <li><a href="#micro">The Low Level Issues</a>
38 <li><a href="#hl_assert">Assert Liberally</a>
39 <li><a href="#hl_preincrement">Prefer Preincrement</a>
40 <li><a href="#hl_avoidendl">Avoid endl</a>
41 <li><a href="#hl_exploitcpp">Exploit C++ to its Fullest</a>
43 <li><a href="#iterators">Writing Iterators</a>
45 <li><a href="#seealso">See Also</a>
49 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
50 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
51 <a name="introduction">Introduction
52 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
53 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
55 This document attempts to describe a few coding standards that are being used in the LLVM source tree. Although no coding standards should be regarded as absolute requirements to be followed in all instances, coding standards can be useful.<p>
57 This document intentionally does not prescribe fixed standards for religious issues such as brace placement and space usage. For issues like this, follow the golden rule:
60 <blockquote><b>If you are adding a significant body of source to a project, feel free to use whatever style you are most comfortable with. If you are extending, enhancing, or bug fixing already implemented code, use the style that is already being used so that the source is uniform and easy to follow.</b></blockquote>
62 The ultimate goal of these guidelines is the increase readability and maintainability of our common source base. If you have suggestions for topics to be included, please mail them to <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris</a>.<p>
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66 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
67 <a name="mechanicalissues">Mechanical Source Issues
68 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
69 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
71 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
72 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td> </td><td width="100%"> <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
73 <a name="sourceformating">Source Code Formatting
74 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
77 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
78 </ul><a name="scf_commenting"><h4><hr size=0>Commenting</h4><ul>
80 Comments are one critical part of readability and maintainability. Everyone knows they should comment, so should you. :) Although we all should probably comment our code more than we do, there are a few very critical places that documentation is very useful:<p>
83 <h4><li>File Headers</h4>
84 Every source file should have a header on it that describes the basic purpose of the file. If a file does not have a header, it should not be checked into CVS. Most source trees will probably have a standard file header format. The standard format for the LLVM source tree looks like this:<p>
87 //===-- llvm/Instruction.h - Instruction class definition --------*- C++ -*--=//
89 // This file contains the declaration of the Instruction class, which is the
90 // base class for all of the VM instructions.
92 //===----------------------------------------------------------------------===//
95 A few things to note about this particular format. The "<tt>-*- C++ -*-</tt>" string on the first line is there to tell Emacs that the source file is a C++ file, not a C file (Emacs assumes .h files are C files by default [Note that tag this is not neccesary in .cpp files]). The name of the file is also on the first line, along with a very short description of the purpose of the file. This is important when printing out code and flipping though lots of pages.<p>
97 The main body of the description does not have to be very long in most cases. Here it's only two lines. If an algorithm is being implemented or something tricky is going on, a reference to the paper where it is published should be included, as well as any notes or "gotchas" in the code to watch out for.<p>
100 <h4><li>Class overviews</h4>
102 Classes are one fundemental part of a good object oriented design. As such, a class definition should have a comment block that explains what the class is used for... if it's not obvious. If it's so completely obvious your grandma could figure it out, it's probably safe to leave it out. Naming classes something sane goes a long ways towards avoiding writing documentation. :)<p>
105 <h4><li>Method information</h4>
107 Methods defined in a class (as well as any global functions) should also be documented properly. A quick note about what it does any a description of the borderline behaviour is all that is neccesary here (unless something particularly tricky or insideous is going on). The hope is that people can figure out how to use your interfaces without reading the code itself... that is the goal metric.<p>
109 Good things to talk about here are what happens when something unexpected happens: does the method return null? Abort? Format your hard disk?<p>
113 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
114 </ul><a name="scf_commentformat"><h4><hr size=0>Comment Formatting</h4><ul>
116 In general, prefer C++ style (<tt>//</tt>) comments. They take less space, require less typing, don't have nesting problems, etc. There are a few cases when it is useful to use C style (<tt>/* */</tt>) comments however:<p>
119 <li>When writing a C code: Obviously if you are writing C code, use C style comments. :)
120 <li>When writing a header file that may be #included by a C source file.
121 <li>When writing a source file that is used by a tool that only accepts C style comments.
124 To comment out a large block of code, use <tt>#if 0</tt> and <tt>#endif</tt>. These nest properly and are better behaved in general than C style comments.<p>
127 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
128 </ul><a name="scf_codewidth"><h4><hr size=0>Source Code Width</h4><ul>
130 Write your code to fit within 80 columns of text. This helps those of us who like to print out code and look at your code in an xterm without resizing it.
133 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
134 </ul><a name="scf_spacestabs"><h4><hr size=0>Use Spaces Instead of Tabs</h4><ul>
136 In all cases, prefer spaces to tabs in source files. People have different prefered indentation levels, and different styles of indentation that they like... this is fine. What isn't is that different editors/viewers expand tabs out to different tab stops. This can cause your code to look completely unreadable, and it is not worth dealing with.<p>
138 As always, follow the <a href="#goldenrule">Golden Rule</a> above: follow the style of existing code if your are modifying and extending it. If you like four spaces of indentation, <b>DO NOT</b> do that in the middle of a chunk of code with two spaces of indentation. Also, do not reindent a whole source file: it make for incredible diffs that are absolutely worthless.<p>
141 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
142 </ul><a name="scf_indentation"><h4><hr size=0>Indent Code Consistently</h4><ul>
144 Okay, your first year of programming you were told that indentation is important. If you didn't believe and internalize this then, now is the time. Just do it.<p>
149 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
150 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td> </td><td width="100%"> <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
151 <a name="compilerissues">Compiler Issues
152 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
155 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
156 </ul><a name="ci_warningerrors"><h4><hr size=0>Treat Compiler Warnings Like Errors</h4><ul>
158 If your code has compiler warnings in it, something is wrong: you aren't casting values correctly, your have "questionable" constructs in your code, or you are doing something legitimately wrong. Compiler warnings can cover up legitimate errors in output and make dealing with a translation unit difficult.<p>
160 It is not possible to prevent all warnings from all compilers, nor is it desirable. Instead, pick a standard compiler (like <tt>gcc</tt>) that provides a good thorough set of warnings, and stick to them. At least in the case of <tt>gcc</tt>, it is possible to work around any spurious errors by changing the syntax of the code slightly. For example, an warning that annoys me occurs when I write code like this:<p>
163 if (V = getValue()) {
168 <tt>gcc</tt> will warn me that I probably want to use the <tt>==</tt> operator, and that I probably mistyped it. In most cases, I haven't, and I really don't want the spurious errors. To fix this particular problem, I rewrite the code like this:<p>
171 if ((V = getValue())) {
176 ...which shuts <tt>gcc</tt> up. Any <tt>gcc</tt> warning that annoys you can be fixed by massaging the code appropriately.<p>
178 These are the <tt>gcc</tt> warnings that I prefer to enable: <tt>-Wall -Winline -W -Wwrite-strings -Wno-unused</tt><p>
181 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
182 </ul><a name="ci_cpp_features"><h4><hr size=0>Which C++ features can I use?</h4><ul>
184 Compilers are finally catching up to the C++ standard. Most compilers implement most features, so you can use just about any features that you would like. In the LLVM source tree, I have chosen to not use these features:<p>
187 <li>Exceptions: Exceptions are very useful for error reporting and handling exceptional conditions. I do not use them in LLVM because they do have an associated performance impact (by restricting restructuring of code), and parts of LLVM are designed for performance critical purposes.<p>
189 Just like most of the rules in this document, this isn't a hard and fast requirement. Exceptions are used in the Parser, because it simplifies error reporting <b>significantly</b>, and the LLVM parser is not at all in the critical path.<p>
191 <li>RTTI: RTTI has a large cost in terms of executable size, and compilers are not yet very good at stomping out "dead" class information blocks. Because of this, typeinfo and dynamic cast are not used.
194 Other features, such as templates (without partial specialization) can be used freely. The general goal is to have clear, consise, performant code... if a technique assists with that then use it.<p>
197 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
198 </ul><a name="ci_portable_code"><h4><hr size=0>Write Portable Code</h4><ul>
200 In almost all cases, it is possible and within reason to write completely portable code. If there are cases where it isn't possible to write portable code, isolate it behind a well defined (and well documented) interface.<p>
202 In practice, this means that you shouldn't assume much about the host compiler, including its support for "high tech" features like partial specialization of templates. In fact, Visual C++ 6 could be an important target for our work in the future, and we don't want to have to rewrite all of our code to support it.<p>
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207 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
208 <a name="styleissues">Style Issues
209 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
210 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
213 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
214 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td> </td><td width="100%"> <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
215 <a name="macro">The High Level Issues
216 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
219 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
220 </ul><a name="hl_module"><h4><hr size=0>A Public Header File <b>is</b> a Module</h4><ul>
222 C++ doesn't do too well in the modularity department. There is no real encapsulation or data hiding (unless you use expensive protocol classes), but it is what we have to work with. When you write a public header file (in the LLVM source tree, they live in the top level "include" directory), you are defining a module of functionality.<p>
224 Modules should be completely independent of each other, except for their dependence. A module is not just a class, a function, or a namespace: <a href="http://www.cuj.com/articles/2000/0002/0002c/0002c.htm">it's a collection of these</a> that defines an interface. This interface may be several functions, classes or data structures, but the important issue is how they work together.<p>
226 <!--One example of this is the <tt>llvm/include/llvm/CFG.h</tt> file. It defines a collection of global functions, template classes, and member functions that are syntactically unrelated to each other. Semantically, however, they all provide useful functionality for operating on a CFG, and so they are bound together.<p> -->
228 In general, a module should be implemented with one or more <tt>.cpp</tt> files. Each of these <tt>.cpp</tt> files should include the header that defines their interface first. This ensure that all of the dependences of the module header have been properly added to the module header itself, and are not implicit. System headers should be included after user headers for a translation unit.<p>
231 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
232 </ul><a name="hl_dontinclude"><h4><hr size=0>#include as Little as Possible</h4><ul>
234 <tt>#include</tt> hurts compile time performance. Don't do it unless you have to, especially in header files.<p>
236 But wait, sometimes you need to have the definition of a class to use it, or to inherit from it. In these cases go ahead and #include that header file. Be aware however that there are many cases where you don't need to have the full definition of a class. If you are using a pointer or reference to a class, you don't need the header file. If you are simply returning a class instance from a prototyped function or method, you don't need it. In fact, for most cases, you simply don't need the definition of a class... and not <tt>#include</tt>'ing speeds up compilation.<p>
238 It is easy to try to go too overboard on this recommendation, however. You <b>must</b> include all of the header files that you are using, either directly or indirectly (through another header file). To make sure that you don't accidently forget to include a header file in your module header, make sure to include your module header <b>first</b> in the implementation file (as mentioned above). This way there won't be any hidden dependencies that you'll find out about later...<p>
241 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
242 </ul><a name="hl_privateheaders"><h4><hr size=0>Keep "internal" Headers Private</h4><ul>
244 Many modules have a complex implementation that causes them to use more than one implementation (<tt>.cpp</tt>) file. It is often tempting to put the internal communication interface (helper classes, extra functions, etc) in the public module header file. Don't do this. :)<p>
246 If you really need to do something like this, put a private header file in the same directory as the source files, and include it locally. This ensures that your private interface remains private and undisturbed by outsiders.<p>
248 Note however, that it's okay to put extra implementation methods a public class itself... just make them private (or protected), and all is well.<p>
251 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
252 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td> </td><td width="100%"> <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
253 <a name="micro">The Low Level Issues
254 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
257 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
258 </ul><a name="hl_assert"><h4><hr size=0>Assert Liberally</h4><ul>
260 Use the "<tt>assert</tt>" function to its fullest. Check all of your preconditions and assumptions, you never know when a bug (not neccesarily even yours) might be caught early by an assertion, which reduces debugging time dramatically. The "<tt>assert.h</tt>" header file is probably already included by the header files you are using, so it doesn't cost anything to use it.<p>
262 To further assist with debugging, make sure to put some kind of error message in the assertion statement (which is printed if the assertion is tripped). This helps the poor debugging make sense of why an assertion is being made and enforced, and hopefully what to do about it. Here is one complete example:<p>
265 inline Value *getOperand(unsigned i) {
266 assert(i < Operands.size() && "getOperand() out of range!");
271 Here are some examples:
274 assert(Ty->isPointerType() && "Can't allocate a non pointer type!");
276 assert((Opcode == Shl || Opcode == Shr) && "ShiftInst Opcode invalid!");
278 assert(idx < getNumSuccessors() && "Successor # out of range!");
280 assert(V1.getType() == V2.getType() && "Constant types must be identical!");
282 assert(isa<PHINode>(Succ->front()) && "Only works on PHId BBs!");
285 You get the idea...<p>
288 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
289 </ul><a name="hl_preincrement"><h4><hr size=0>Prefer Preincrement</h4><ul>
291 Hard fast rule: Preincrement (++X) may be no slower than postincrement (X++) and could very well be a lot faster than it. Use preincrementation whenever possible.<p>
293 The semantics of postincrement include making a copy of the value being incremented, returning it, and then preincrementing the "work value". For primitive types, this isn't a big deal... but for iterators, it can be a huge issue (for example, some iterators contains stack and set objects in them... copying an iterator could invoke the copy ctor's of these as well). In general, get in the habit of always using preincrement, and you won't have a problem.<p>
296 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
297 </ul><a name="hl_avoidendl"><h4><hr size=0>Avoid endl</h4><ul>
299 The <tt>endl</tt> modifier, when used with iostreams outputs a newline to the output stream specified. In addition to doing this, however, it also flushes the output stream. In other words, these are equivalent:<p>
303 cout << "\n" << flush;
306 Most of the time, you probably have no reason to flush the output stream, so it's better to use a literal <tt>"\n"</tt>.<p>
309 <!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
310 </ul><a name="hl_exploitcpp"><h4><hr size=0>Exploit C++ to its Fullest</h4><ul>
312 C++ is a powerful language. With a firm grasp on its capabilities, you can make write effective, consise, readable and maintainable code all at the same time. By staying consistent, you reduce the amount of special cases that need to be remembered. Reducing the total number of lines of code you write is a good way to avoid documentation, and avoid giving bugs a place to hide.<p>
314 For these reasons, come to know and love the contents of your local <algorithm> header file. Know about <functional> and what it can do for you. C++ is just a tool that wants you to master it. :)<p>
318 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
319 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td> </td><td width="100%"> <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
320 <a name="iterators">Writing Iterators
321 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
323 Here's a pretty good summary of how to write your own data structure iterators in a way that is compatible with the STL, and with a lot of other code out there (slightly edited by Chris):<p>
326 From: Ross Smith <ross.s@ihug.co.nz>
327 Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++.moderated
328 Subject: Writing iterators (was: Re: Non-template functions that take iterators)
329 Date: 28 Jun 2001 12:07:10 -0400
332 > Any pointers handy on "writing STL-compatible iterators for
335 I'll give it a try...
337 The usual situation requiring user-defined iterators is that you have
338 a type that bears some resemblance to an STL container, and you want
339 to provide iterators so it can be used with STL algorithms. You need
340 to ask three questions:
342 First, is this simply a wrapper for an underlying collection of
343 objects that's held somewhere as a real STL container, or is it a
344 "virtual container" for which iteration is (under the hood) more
345 complicated than simply incrementing some underlying iterator (or
346 pointer or index or whatever)? In the former case you can frequently
347 get away with making your container's iterators simply typedefs for
348 those of the underlying container; your begin() function would call
349 member_container.begin(), and so on.
351 Second, do you only need read-only iterators, or do you need separate
352 read-only (const) and read-write (non-const) iterators?
354 Third, which kind of iterator (input, output, forward, bidirectional,
355 or random access) is appropriate? If you're familiar with the
356 properties of the iterator types (if not, visit
357 <a href="http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/">http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/</a>), the appropriate choice should be
358 obvious from the semantics of the container.
360 I'll start with forward iterators, as the simplest case that's likely
361 to come up in normal code. Input and output iterators have some odd
362 properties and rarely need to be implemented in user code; I'll leave
363 them out of discussion. Bidirectional and random access iterators are
366 The exact behaviour of a forward iterator is spelled out in the
367 Standard in terms of a set of expressions with specified behaviour,
368 rather than a set of member functions, which leaves some leeway in how
369 you actually implement it. Typically it looks something like this
370 (I'll start with the const-iterator-only situation):
376 typedef something_or_other value_type;
377 class const_iterator:
378 public std::iterator<std::forward_iterator_tag, value_type> {
379 friend class container;
381 const value_type& operator*() const;
382 const value_type* operator->() const;
383 const_iterator& operator++();
384 const_iterator operator++(int);
385 friend bool operator==(const_iterator lhs,
387 friend bool operator!=(const_iterator lhs,
395 An iterator should always be derived from an instantiation of the
396 std::iterator template. The iterator's life cycle functions
397 (constructors, destructor, and assignment operator) aren't declared
398 here; in most cases the compiler-generated ones are sufficient. The
399 container needs to be a friend of the iterator so that the container's
400 begin() and end() functions can fill in the iterator's private members
401 with the appropriate values.
403 <i>[Chris's Note: I prefer to not make my iterators friends. Instead, two
404 ctor's are provided for the iterator class: one to start at the end of the
405 container, and one at the beginning. Typically this is done by providing
406 two constructors with different signatures.]</i>
408 There are normally only three member functions that need nontrivial
409 implementations; the rest are just boilerplate.
411 const container::value_type&
412 container::const_iterator::operator*() const {
413 // find the element and return a reference to it
416 const container::value_type*
417 container::const_iterator::operator->() const {
421 If there's an underlying real container, operator*() can just return a
422 reference to the appropriate element. If there's no actual container
423 and the elements need to be generated on the fly -- what I think of as
424 a "virtual container" -- things get a bit more complicated; you'll
425 probably need to give the iterator a value_type member object, and
426 fill it in when you need to. This might be done as part of the
427 increment operator (below), or if the operation is nontrivial, you
428 might choose the "lazy" approach and only generate the actual value
429 when one of the dereferencing operators is called.
431 The operator->() function is just boilerplate around a call to
434 container::const_iterator&
435 container::const_iterator::operator++() {
436 // the incrementing logic goes here
440 container::const_iterator
441 container::const_iterator::operator++(int) {
442 const_iterator old(*this);
447 Again, the incrementing logic will usually be trivial if there's a
448 real container involved, more complicated if you're working with a
449 virtual container. In particular, watch out for what happens when you
450 increment past the last valid item -- this needs to produce an
451 iterator that will compare equal to container.end(), and making this
452 work is often nontrivial for virtual containers.
454 The post-increment function is just boilerplate again (and
455 incidentally makes it obvious why all the experts recommend using
456 pre-increment wherever possible).
458 bool operator==(container::const_iterator lhs,
459 container::const_iterator rhs) {
460 // equality comparison goes here
463 bool operator!=(container::const_iterator lhs,
464 container::const_iterator rhs) {
465 return !(lhs == rhs);
468 For a real container, the equality comparison will usually just
469 compare the underlying iterators (or pointers or indices or whatever).
470 The semantics of comparisons for virtual container iterators are often
471 tricky. Remember that iterator comparison only needs to be defined for
472 iterators into the same container, so you can often simplify things by
473 taking for granted that lhs and rhs both point into the same container
474 object. Again, the second function is just boilerplate.
476 It's a matter of taste whether iterator arguments are passed by value
477 or reference; I've shown tham passed by value to reduce clutter, but
478 if the iterator contains several data members, passing by reference
481 That convers the const-iterator-only situation. When we need separate
482 const and mutable iterators, one small complication is added beyond
483 the simple addition of a second class.
487 typedef something_or_other value_type;
488 class const_iterator;
490 public std::iterator<std::forward_iterator_tag, value_type> {
491 friend class container;
492 friend class container::const_iterator;
494 value_type& operator*() const;
495 value_type* operator->() const;
496 iterator& operator++();
497 iterator operator++(int);
498 friend bool operator==(iterator lhs, iterator rhs);
499 friend bool operator!=(iterator lhs, iterator rhs);
503 class const_iterator:
504 public std::iterator<std::forward_iterator_tag, value_type> {
505 friend class container;
508 const_iterator(const iterator& i);
509 const value_type& operator*() const;
510 const value_type* operator->() const;
511 const_iterator& operator++();
512 const_iterator operator++(int);
513 friend bool operator==(const_iterator lhs,
515 friend bool operator!=(const_iterator lhs,
523 There needs to be a conversion from iterator to const_iterator (so
524 that mixed-type operations, such as comparison between an iterator and
525 a const_iterator, will work). This is done here by giving
526 const_iterator a conversion constructor from iterator (equivalently,
527 we could have given iterator an operator const_iterator()), which
528 requires const_iterator to be a friend of iterator, so it can copy its
529 data members. (It also requires the addition of an explicit default
530 constructor to const_iterator, since the existence of another
531 user-defined constructor inhibits the compiler-defined one.)
533 Bidirectional iterators add just two member functions to forward
537 public std::iterator<std::bidirectional_iterator_tag, value_type> {
540 iterator& operator--();
541 iterator operator--(int);
545 I won't detail the implementations, they're obvious variations on
548 Random access iterators add several more member and friend functions:
551 public std::iterator<std::random_access_iterator_tag, value_type> {
554 iterator& operator+=(difference_type rhs);
555 iterator& operator-=(difference_type rhs);
556 friend iterator operator+(iterator lhs, difference_type rhs);
557 friend iterator operator+(difference_type lhs, iterator rhs);
558 friend iterator operator-(iterator lhs, difference_type rhs);
559 friend difference_type operator-(iterator lhs, iterator rhs);
560 friend bool operator<(iterator lhs, iterator rhs);
561 friend bool operator>(iterator lhs, iterator rhs);
562 friend bool operator<=(iterator lhs, iterator rhs);
563 friend bool operator>=(iterator lhs, iterator rhs);
568 container::iterator::operator+=(container::difference_type rhs) {
569 // add rhs to iterator position
574 container::iterator::operator-=(container::difference_type rhs) {
575 // subtract rhs from iterator position
579 container::iterator operator+(container::iterator lhs,
580 container::difference_type rhs) {
581 return iterator(lhs) += rhs;
584 container::iterator operator+(container::difference_type lhs,
585 container::iterator rhs) {
586 return iterator(rhs) += lhs;
589 container::iterator operator-(container::iterator lhs,
590 container::difference_type rhs) {
591 return iterator(lhs) -= rhs;
594 container::difference_type operator-(container::iterator lhs,
595 container::iterator rhs) {
596 // calculate distance between iterators
599 bool operator<(container::iterator lhs, container::iterator rhs) {
600 // perform less-than comparison
603 bool operator>(container::iterator lhs, container::iterator rhs) {
607 bool operator<=(container::iterator lhs, container::iterator rhs) {
611 bool operator>=(container::iterator lhs, container::iterator rhs) {
615 Four of the functions (operator+=(), operator-=(), the second
616 operator-(), and operator<()) are nontrivial; the rest are
619 One feature of the above code that some experts may disapprove of is
620 the declaration of all the free functions as friends, when in fact
621 only a few of them need direct access to the iterator's private data.
622 I originally got into the habit of doing this simply to keep the
623 declarations together; declaring some functions inside the class and
624 some outside seemed awkward. Since then, though, I've been told that
625 there's a subtle difference in the way name lookup works for functions
626 declared inside a class (as friends) and outside, so keeping them
627 together in the class is probably a good idea for practical as well as
630 I hope all this is some help to anyone who needs to write their own
631 STL-like containers and iterators.
634 Ross Smith <ross.s@ihug.co.nz> The Internet Group, Auckland, New Zealand
638 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
639 </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
640 <a name="seealso">See Also
641 </b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
642 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
644 A lot of these comments and recommendations have been culled for other sources. Two particularly important books for our work are:<p>
647 <li><a href="http://www.aw.com/product/0,2627,0201924889,00.html">Effective C++</a> by Scott Meyers. There is an online version of the book (only some chapters though) <a href="http://www.awlonline.com/cseng/meyerscddemo/">available as well</a>.
648 <li><a href="http://cseng.aw.com/book/0,3828,0201633620,00.html">Large-Scale C++ Software Design</a> by John Lakos
651 If you get some free time, and you haven't read them: do so, you might learn something. :)
654 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
656 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
660 <address><a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></address>
661 <!-- Created: Tue Jan 23 15:19:28 CST 2001 -->
663 Last modified: Sun Jan 20 13:01:02 CST 2002
projects / oota-llvm.git / blob