如何实现 STL 风格的迭代器并避免常见的陷阱?

http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/std/iterator/ has a handy chart that details the specs of § 24.2.2 of the C++11 standard. Basically, the iterators have tags that describe the valid operations, and the tags have a hierarchy. Below is purely symbolic, these classes don't actually exist as such.

iterator {
    iterator(const iterator&);
    ~iterator();
    iterator& operator=(const iterator&);
    iterator& operator++(); //prefix increment
    reference operator*() const;
    friend void swap(iterator& lhs, iterator& rhs); //C++11 I think
};

input_iterator : public virtual iterator {
    iterator operator++(int); //postfix increment
    value_type operator*() const;
    pointer operator->() const;
    friend bool operator==(const iterator&, const iterator&);
    friend bool operator!=(const iterator&, const iterator&); 
};
//once an input iterator has been dereferenced, it is 
//undefined to dereference one before that.

output_iterator : public virtual iterator {
    reference operator*() const;
    iterator operator++(int); //postfix increment
};
//dereferences may only be on the left side of an assignment
//once an output iterator has been dereferenced, it is 
//undefined to dereference one before that.

forward_iterator : input_iterator, output_iterator {
    forward_iterator();
};
//multiple passes allowed

bidirectional_iterator : forward_iterator {
    iterator& operator--(); //prefix decrement
    iterator operator--(int); //postfix decrement
};

random_access_iterator : bidirectional_iterator {
    friend bool operator<(const iterator&, const iterator&);
    friend bool operator>(const iterator&, const iterator&);
    friend bool operator<=(const iterator&, const iterator&);
    friend bool operator>=(const iterator&, const iterator&);

    iterator& operator+=(size_type);
    friend iterator operator+(const iterator&, size_type);
    friend iterator operator+(size_type, const iterator&);
    iterator& operator-=(size_type);  
    friend iterator operator-(const iterator&, size_type);
    friend difference_type operator-(iterator, iterator);

    reference operator[](size_type) const;
};

contiguous_iterator : random_access_iterator { //C++17
}; //elements are stored contiguously in memory.

您可以专门化 std::iterator_traits，或者将相同的 typedefs 放入迭代器本身，或者从 std::iterator 继承(它有这些类型定义).我更喜欢第二个选项，以避免更改 std 命名空间中的内容，并且为了可读性，但大多数人继承自 std::iterator.

struct std::iterator_traits<youriterator> {        
    typedef ???? difference_type; //almost always ptrdiff_t
    typedef ???? value_type; //almost always T
    typedef ???? reference; //almost always T& or const T&
    typedef ???? pointer; //almost always T* or const T*
    typedef ???? iterator_category;  //usually std::forward_iterator_tag or similar
};