c++ - splice() on std::list and iterator invalidation

Question

The 3-argument form of list::splice() moves a single element from one list to the other. SGI's documentation explicitly states that all iterators, including the one pointing to the element being moved remain valid. Roguewave's documentation does not say anything about iterator invalidation properties of splice() methods, whereas the C++ standard explicitly states that it invalidates all iterators and references to the element being spliced.

splicing() in practice works as defined by SGI, but I get assertion failure (dereferencing invalid iterator) in debug / secure SCL versions of microsoft's STL implementation (which strictly follows the letter of the standard).

Now, I'm using list exactly because I want to move an element between lists, while preserving the validity of the iterator pointing to it. The standard has made an extremely unhelpful change to the original SGI's specification.

How can I work around this problem? Or should I just be pragmatic and stick my head in the sand (because the splicing does not invalidate iterators in practice -- not even in the MS's implementation, once iterator debugging is turned off).

Answer 1

Ok, this seems to be a defect in the standard, according to this and this link. It seems that "sticking the head in the sand" is a good strategy, since it will be fixed in new library versions.