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Section: 23.4.3 [iterator.operations] Status: New Submitter: Billy O'Neal III Opened: 2019-04-03 Last modified: 2020-09-06
Priority: 3
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Discussion:
MSVC++ (and apparently libc++) have asserts that std::prev only accepts BidirectionalIterators, because it's declared in the standard as accepting only BidirectionalIterator. libc++ changed their tests (in this commit), apparently from a bug report from Ville and Jonathan, saying that one could theoretically call std::prev with a negative number.
The standardese in [iterator.operations] strongly indicates that prev requires a BidirectionalIterator, but I don't see the usual wording that connects template type parameters of that name to the <algorithm> requirements or similar. So perhaps one could argue that the name Bidirectional there has no meaning. Even if that is the case, that's a defect in the other direction.[2019-06-12 Priority set to 3 after reflector discussion]
Proposed resolution:
This wording is relative to N4810.
[Drafting Note: Three mutually exclusive options are prepared, depicted below by Option A, Option B, and Option C, respectively.]
Option A
NAD, the name BidirectionalIterator actually means that prev requires bidirectional iterators, in which case this change to libcxx is incorrect.
Option B
Modify 23.2 [iterator.synopsis], header <iterator> synopsis, as indicated:
// 23.4.3 [iterator.operations], iterator operations […] template<classBidirectionalInputIterator> constexprBidirectionalInputIterator prev(BidirectionalInputIterator x, typename iterator_traits<BidirectionalInputIterator>::difference_type n = 1);
Modify 23.4.3 [iterator.operations] as indicated:
template<classBidirectionalInputIterator> constexprBidirectionalInputIterator prev(BidirectionalInputIterator x, typename iterator_traits<BidirectionalInputIterator>::difference_type n = 1);-7- Effects: Equivalent to: advance(x, -n); return x;
Option C
The intent of the wording is that the template parameters apply requirements, and the defect is that they do not. We should add a requirement in 23.4.3 [iterator.operations]/1 to the effect that the template parameter names impose said requirements.