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7 The neatest accomplishment of the algorithms chapter is that all the
8 work is done via iterators, not containers directly. This means two
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11 Anything that behaves like an iterator can be used in one of
12 these algorithms. Raw pointers make great candidates, thus
13 built-in arrays are fine containers, as well as your own iterators.
15 The algorithms do not (and cannot) affect the container as a
16 whole; only the things between the two iterator endpoints. If
17 you pass a range of iterators only enclosing the middle third of
18 a container, then anything outside that range is inviolate.
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20 Even strings can be fed through the algorithms here, although the
21 string class has specialized versions of many of these functions
22 (for example, <code class="code">string::find()</code>). Most of the examples
23 on this page will use simple arrays of integers as a playground
24 for algorithms, just to keep things simple. The use of
25 <span class="emphasis"><em>N</em></span> as a size in the examples is to keep
26 things easy to read but probably won't be valid code. You can
27 use wrappers such as those described in the <a class="link" href="containers.html" title="Part VII. Containers">containers chapter</a> to
28 keep real code readable.
30 The single thing that trips people up the most is the definition
31 of <span class="emphasis"><em>range</em></span> used with iterators; the famous
32 "past-the-end" rule that everybody loves to hate. The
33 <a class="link" href="iterators.html" title="Part VIII. Iterators">iterators
34 chapter</a> of this document has a complete explanation of
35 this simple rule that seems to cause so much confusion. Once you
36 get <span class="emphasis"><em>range</em></span> into your head (it's not that
37 hard, honest!), then the algorithms are a cakewalk.
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