C++: Proper way to iterate over STL containers

Question

In my game engine project, I make extensive use of the STL, mostly of the std::string and std::vector classes.

In many cases, I have to ite

Answer 1

• For random-access containers, it's not wrong.

• But you can use iterators instead.

  for (string::const_iterator it = theContainer.begin();
       it != theContainer.end(); ++it) {
      // do something with *it
  }
  

• There are some circumstances under which a compiler may optimize away the .size() (or .end() in the iterator case) calls (e.g. only const access, function is pure). But do not depend on it.