c++ - Generic function to flatten a container of containers

Question

I am trying to get a better hold on iterators and generic functions. I thought it would be a useful exercise to write a function that converts container1 < container2 <type> > to container3 <type>. For example, it should be able to convert vector< deque<int> > to list<int>.

I figured all the container access should be through iterators, like the functions in <algorithm>.

Here is my code:

#include <iterator>
#include <algorithm>

// COCiter == Container of Containers Iterator
// Oiter == Output Iterator
template <class COCiter, class Oiter>
void flatten (COCiter start, COCiter end, Oiter dest)
{
    using namespace std;

    while (start != end) {
        dest = copy(start->begin(), start()->end(), dest);
        ++start;
    }
}

But when I try to call it in the following code:

int main ()
{
    using namespace std;

    vector< vector<string> > splitlines;
    vector<string> flat;

    /* some code to fill SPLITLINES with vectors of strings */

    flatten(splitlines.begin(), splitlines.end(), back_inserter(flat));
}

I get a huge C++ template error message, undefined reference to void flatten< ... pages of templates ...

I feel like my code was too easy to write, and I must need some more stuff to ensure that the data type in the inner containers matches the data type in the output container. But I don't know what to do.

Answer 1

I found the issue. Thanks to SFINAE (Substitution failure is not an error) your compiler couldn't find the correct template because you are trying to call operator() on start by typing start() (probably a typo). Try this:

#include <iterator>
#include <algorithm>

// COCiter == Container of Containers Iterator
// Oiter == Output Iterator
template <class COCiter, class Oiter>
void flatten (COCiter start, COCiter end, Oiter dest) {
    while (start != end) {
        dest = std::copy(start->begin(), start->end(), dest);
        ++start;
    }
}