Error message from header file in Principles and Practice using C++

Question

I\'ve just started learning C++ using Programming: Principles and Practice using C++. That book tells me to use a header file which sets things up for me. The header file in que

Answer 1

From a first look, the vector of bool seems to be the problem. Unfortunately, vectors and bool values do not go well together, as iterators are unable to return a bool& reference. See this question for a fairly detailed explanation.

Answer 2

(Are you sure that's the code you're compiling? where is max declared?)

std::vector<bool> is a very strange beast which doesn't behave like std::vector<T> for any other T.

Unfortunately even though std::vector<bool> seems like the obvious choice in your case, it forces you to deal with the oddness of std::vector<bool> and it doesn't work with Stroustrup's Vector class template.

The detailed explanation of the error is that Stroustrup's header re-defines vector to refer to his Vector template, which adds some range-checking to the element access operator (i.e. operator[], which is the one used when you say primes[i]). The redefined vector cannot be instantiated with bool because std::vector<bool>::operator[] does not return a normal reference, and the redefined vector expects it to do so.