Re: Bug in include/bits/stl_iterator.h?

[Phil Edwards <phil at jaj dot com>]

On Thu, May 29, 2003 at 04:03:56PM -0700, Nathan Myers wrote:
> 
>     // NB: Not required, but considered best practice.
>     if (__builtin_expect(__beg == _InIter(), 0))
>       __throw_logic_error("basic_string::_S_construct NULL not valid");
[...]
> 
> we should eliminate this check from basic_string.tcc and anywhere 
> else it (or its like) appears.

I think you misspelled "we should find some other way of performing this
highly useful check which catches a common programming error."

Beginning (and even intermediate) users construct basic_strings from NULL
all the time.  Trust me, I get asked about it quite a bit.  They seem to
expect that the result should be equivalent to basic_string(""), which I
agree would be wrong on many levels, but to not check the argument against
NULL at all would just be needlessly confusing.


Phil

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