Question

I do not understand why iterating through a container with a for loop produces different results than iterating through it with a while loop. The following MWE illustrates this with a vector and a set of 5 integers.

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <set>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
  vector<int> v;
  set<int> s;

  // add integers 0..5 to vector v and set s
  for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
    v.push_back(i);
    s.insert(i);
  }

  cout << "Iterating through vector with for loop.\n";
  vector<int>::const_iterator itv;
  for (itv = v.begin(); itv != v.end(); itv++) cout << *itv << ' ';
  cout << '\n';

  cout << "Iterating through set with for loop.\n";
  set<int>::const_iterator its;
  for (its = s.begin(); its != s.end(); its++) cout << *its << ' ';
  cout << '\n';

  cout << "Iterating through vector with while loop.\n";
  itv = v.begin();
  while (itv++ != v.end()) cout << *itv << ' ';
  cout << '\n';

  cout << "Iterating through set with while loop.\n";
  its = s.begin();
  while (its++ != s.end()) cout << *its << ' ';
  cout << '\n';
}

The above produces:

Iterating through vector with for loop.
0 1 2 3 4 
Iterating through set with for loop.
0 1 2 3 4 
Iterating through vector with while loop.
1 2 3 4 0 
Iterating through set with while loop.
1 2 3 4 5 

The for loops work as expected but not the while loops. Since I’m using ++ as a postfix, I don’t understand why the while loops behave as they do. Another mystery is why the while loop prints a 5 for set s, since this number was not inserted in s.

Answer 1

When you iterate using the for loop you increment the iterator only after the body is evaluated. When you iterate using the while loop you increment the iterator after the check but before the body of the loop. Dereferencing the iterator in the last iteration of your while loops causes undefined behavior.