我不知道主要库中的任何实现，但它看起来是一个有趣的问题，所以我编写了一个基本实现。我只用我这里提供的测试用例进行了测试，所以我不建议在没有进一步测试的情况下使用它。
问题比看起来要复杂一些，因为某些“内部”容器可能是空的，您必须跳过它们。这意味着将flattening_iterator 推进一个位置实际上可能将迭代器推进到“外部”容器中不止一个位置。因此，flattening_iterator 需要知道外部范围的终点在哪里，以便知道何时需要停止。
这个实现是一个前向迭代器。双向迭代器还需要跟踪外部范围的开始。 flatten 函数模板用于简化flattening_iterators 的构建。
#include <iterator>
// A forward iterator that "flattens" a container of containers. For example,
// a vector<vector<int>> containing { { 1, 2, 3 }, { 4, 5, 6 } } is iterated as
// a single range, { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }.
template <typename OuterIterator>
class flattening_iterator
{
public:
typedef OuterIterator outer_iterator;
typedef typename OuterIterator::value_type::iterator inner_iterator;
typedef std::forward_iterator_tag iterator_category;
typedef typename inner_iterator::value_type value_type;
typedef typename inner_iterator::difference_type difference_type;
typedef typename inner_iterator::pointer pointer;
typedef typename inner_iterator::reference reference;
flattening_iterator() { }
flattening_iterator(outer_iterator it) : outer_it_(it), outer_end_(it) { }
flattening_iterator(outer_iterator it, outer_iterator end)
: outer_it_(it),
outer_end_(end)
{
if (outer_it_ == outer_end_) { return; }
inner_it_ = outer_it_->begin();
advance_past_empty_inner_containers();
}
reference operator*() const { return *inner_it_; }
pointer operator->() const { return &*inner_it_; }
flattening_iterator& operator++()
{
++inner_it_;
if (inner_it_ == outer_it_->end())
advance_past_empty_inner_containers();
return *this;
}
flattening_iterator operator++(int)
{
flattening_iterator it(*this);
++*this;
return it;
}
friend bool operator==(const flattening_iterator& a,
const flattening_iterator& b)
{
if (a.outer_it_ != b.outer_it_)
return false;
if (a.outer_it_ != a.outer_end_ &&
b.outer_it_ != b.outer_end_ &&
a.inner_it_ != b.inner_it_)
return false;
return true;
}
friend bool operator!=(const flattening_iterator& a,
const flattening_iterator& b)
{
return !(a == b);
}
private:
void advance_past_empty_inner_containers()
{
while (outer_it_ != outer_end_ && inner_it_ == outer_it_->end())
{
++outer_it_;
if (outer_it_ != outer_end_)
inner_it_ = outer_it_->begin();
}
}
outer_iterator outer_it_;
outer_iterator outer_end_;
inner_iterator inner_it_;
};
template <typename Iterator>
flattening_iterator<Iterator> flatten(Iterator it)
{
return flattening_iterator<Iterator>(it, it);
}
template <typename Iterator>
flattening_iterator<Iterator> flatten(Iterator first, Iterator last)
{
return flattening_iterator<Iterator>(first, last);
}
以下是一个最小的测试存根：
#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <set>
#include <vector>
int main()
{
// Generate some test data: it looks like this:
// { { 0, 1, 2, 3 }, { 4, 5, 6, 7 }, { 8, 9, 10, 11 } }
std::vector<std::vector<int>> v(3);
int i(0);
for (auto it(v.begin()); it != v.end(); ++it)
{
it->push_back(i++); it->push_back(i++);
it->push_back(i++); it->push_back(i++);
}
// Flatten the data and print all the elements:
for (auto it(flatten(v.begin(), v.end())); it != v.end(); ++it)
{
std::cout << *it << ", ";
}
std::cout << "\n";
// Or, since the standard library algorithms are awesome:
std::copy(flatten(v.begin(), v.end()), flatten(v.end()),
std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, ", "));
}
就像我一开始说的，我还没有彻底测试过。如果您发现任何错误，请告诉我，我很乐意纠正它们。