Hierarchy of Iterators

In addition to the default iterator classes defined for containers, STL includes several other derived iterator classes, such as those listed below.


input_iterator
    istream_iterator       iterates over a C++ input stream (like cin)

output_iterator
    ostream_iterator       iterates over a C++ output stream (like cout)
    back_insert_iterator   always inserts at the end of a container
    front_insert_iterator  always inserts at the front of a container
    insert_iterator        inserts at its current position

bidirectional_iterator
    reverse_bidirectional_iterator  iterates backwards by default

A detailed description of each of these iterators is included in the Reference Manual section of this book.