reverse_iterator synopsis

template <class Iterator>
class reverse_iterator
{
public:
  typedef iterator_traits<Iterator>::value_type value_type;
  typedef iterator_traits<Iterator>::reference reference;
  typedef iterator_traits<Iterator>::pointer pointer;
  typedef iterator_traits<Iterator>::difference_type difference_type;
  typedef /* see below */ iterator_category;

  reverse_iterator() {}
  explicit reverse_iterator(Iterator x) ;

  template<class OtherIterator>
  reverse_iterator(
      reverse_iterator<OtherIterator> const& r
    , typename enable_if_convertible<OtherIterator, Iterator>::type* = 0 // exposition
  );
  Iterator const& base() const;
  reference operator*() const;
  reverse_iterator& operator++();
  reverse_iterator& operator--();
private:
  Iterator m_iterator; // exposition
};

If Iterator models Random Access Traversal Iterator and Readable Lvalue Iterator, then iterator_category is convertible to random_access_iterator_tag. Otherwise, if Iterator models Bidirectional Traversal Iterator and Readable Lvalue Iterator, then iterator_category is convertible to bidirectional_iterator_tag. Otherwise, iterator_category is convertible to input_iterator_tag.

reverse_iterator requirements

Iterator must be a model of Bidirectional Traversal Iterator. The type iterator_traits<Iterator>::reference must be the type of *i, where i is an object of type Iterator.

reverse_iterator models

A specialization of reverse_iterator models the same iterator traversal and iterator access concepts modeled by its Iterator argument. In addition, it may model old iterator concepts specified in the following table:

reverse_iterator<X> is interoperable with reverse_iterator<Y> if and only if X is interoperable with Y.

reverse_iterator operations

In addition to the operations required by the concepts modeled by reverse_iterator, reverse_iterator provides the following operations.

reverse_iterator();

explicit reverse_iterator(Iterator x);

template<class OtherIterator>
reverse_iterator(
    reverse_iterator<OtherIterator> const& r
  , typename enable_if_convertible<OtherIterator, Iterator>::type* = 0 // exposition
);

Iterator const& base() const;

reference operator*() const;

Iterator tmp = m_iterator;
return *--tmp;

reverse_iterator& operator++();

reverse_iterator& operator--();

template <class BidirectionalIterator>
reverse_iterator<BidirectionalIterator>n
make_reverse_iterator(BidirectionalIterator x);

Example

The following example prints an array of characters in reverse order using reverse_iterator.

char letters_[] = "hello world!";
const int N = sizeof(letters_)/sizeof(char) - 1;
typedef char* base_iterator;
base_iterator letters(letters_);
std::cout << "original sequence of letters:\t\t\t" << letters_ << std::endl;

boost::reverse_iterator<base_iterator>
  reverse_letters_first(letters + N),
  reverse_letters_last(letters);

std::cout << "sequence in reverse order:\t\t\t";
std::copy(reverse_letters_first, reverse_letters_last,
          std::ostream_iterator<char>(std::cout));
std::cout << std::endl;

std::cout << "sequence in double-reversed (normal) order:\t";
std::copy(boost::make_reverse_iterator(reverse_letters_last),
          boost::make_reverse_iterator(reverse_letters_first),
          std::ostream_iterator<char>(std::cout));
std::cout << std::endl;

The output is:

original sequence of letters:                   hello world!
sequence in reverse order:                      !dlrow olleh
sequence in double-reversed (normal) order:     hello world!

The source code for this example can be found here.