iterators

[Arbondawn]

Hey guys, I was given a project that I have to complete that uses iterators everywhere. I found the iterator chart on the site, but I'm still confused as to what it actually means. Heres part of the article:

An iterator is any object that, pointing to some element in a range of elements (such as an array or a container), has the ability to iterate through the elements of that range using a set of operators (with at least the increment (++) and dereference (*) operators).

The most obvious form of iterator is a pointer: A pointer can point to elements in an array, and can iterate through them using the increment operator (++). But other kinds of iterators are possible. For example, each container type (such as a list) has a specific iterator type designed to iterate through its elements.

Notice that while a pointer is a form of iterator, not all iterators have the same functionality of pointers; Depending on the properties supported by iterators, they are classified into five different categories:...

So what does this mean when I'm given a function(inside a class) such as
iterator FUNCTION_NAME()

or an argument variable (also inside a class)
void FUNCTION_NAME(iterator VARIABLE) ???

I know I want to use a pointer, so does that mean I would pass a pointer variable through the function? Does that mean my iterator function is/can be a pointer?

Thanks in advance!

[Albatross]

It's true that pointers can be iterators, but iterators aren't only pointers. There are also std::iterators to consider, which is the type that those functions are taking/returning. Those iterators allow you to iterate over the data stored by the STL containers (for those containers that offer them, like array, vector, deque, list, map, and set).

When they want you to use iterators, I think they want you to use the standard library's iterators.
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/iterator/iterator/

I hope this helps.

-Albatross