Deleting elements from std::set while iterating

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I need to go through a set and remove elements that meet a predefined criteria.

This is the test code I wrote:

#include <set>
#include <algorithm>

void printElement(int value) {
    std::cout << value << " ";
}

int main() {
    int initNum[] = { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 };
    std::set<int> numbers(initNum, initNum + 10);
    // print '0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9'
    std::for_each(numbers.begin(), numbers.end(), printElement);

    std::set<int>::iterator it = numbers.begin();

    // iterate through the set and erase all even numbers
    for (; it != numbers.end(); ++it) {
        int n = *it;
        if (n % 2 == 0) {
            // wouldn't invalidate the iterator?
            numbers.erase(it);
        }
    }

    // print '1 3 5 7 9'
    std::for_each(numbers.begin(), numbers.end(), printElement);

    return 0;
}

At first, I thought that erasing an element from the set while iterating through it would invalidate the iterator, and the increment at the for loop would have undefined behavior. Even though, I executed this test code and all went well, and I can't explain why.

My question: Is this the defined behavior for std sets or is this implementation specific? I am using gcc 4.3.3 on ubuntu 10.04 (32-bit version), by the way.

Thanks!

Proposed solution:

Is this a correct way to iterate and erase elements from the set?

while(it != numbers.end()) {
    int n = *it;
    if (n % 2 == 0) {
        // post-increment operator returns a copy, then increment
        numbers.erase(it++);
    } else {
        // pre-increment operator increments, then return
        ++it;
    }
}

Edit: PREFERED SOLUTION

I came around a solution that seems more elegant to me, even though it does exactly the same.

while(it != numbers.end()) {
    // copy the current iterat

If you run your program through valgrind, you'll see a bunch of read errors. In other words, yes, the iterators are being invalidated, but you're getting lucky in your example (or really unlucky, as you're not seeing the negative effects of undefined behavior). One solution to this is to create a temporary iterator, increment the temp, delete the target iterator, then set the target to the temp. For example, re-write your loop as follows:

std::set<int>::iterator it = numbers.begin();                               
std::set<int>::iterator tmp;                                                

// iterate through the set and erase all even numbers                       
for ( ; it != numbers.end(); )                                              
{                                                                           
    int n = *it;                                                            
    if (n % 2 == 0)                                                         
    {                                                                       
        tmp = it;                                                           
        ++tmp;                                                              
        numbers.erase(it);                                                  
        it = tmp;                                                           
    }                                                                       
    else                                                                    
    {                                                                       
        ++it;                                                               
    }                                                                       
}

answered 2010-05-20T14:35:05.043

Deleting elements from std::set while iterating

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