std::regex_iterator

std::regex_iterator is a read-only iterator that accesses the individual matches of a regular expression within the underlying character sequence. It meets the requirements of a LegacyForwardIterator, except that for dereferenceable values a and b with a == b, *a and *b will not be bound to the same object.

On construction, and on every increment, it calls std::regex_search and remembers the result (that is, saves a copy of the std::match_results<BidirIt> value). The first object may be read when the iterator is constructed or when the first dereferencing is done. Otherwise, dereferencing only returns a copy of the most recently obtained regex match.

The default-constructed std::regex_iterator is the end-of-sequence iterator. When a valid std::regex_iterator is incremented after reaching the last match (std::regex_search returns false), it becomes equal to the end-of-sequence iterator. Dereferencing or incrementing it further invokes undefined behavior.

A typical implementation of std::regex_iterator holds the begin and the end iterators for the underlying sequence (two instances of BidirIt), a pointer to the regular expression (const regex_type*), the match flags (std::regex_constants::match_flag_type), and the current match (std::match_results<BidirIt>).

[edit] Type requirements

[edit] Specializations

Several specializations for common character sequence types are defined:

[edit] Member types

[edit] Data members

[edit] Member functions

[edit] Notes

It is the programmer's responsibility to ensure that the std::basic_regex object passed to the iterator's constructor outlives the iterator. Because the iterator stores a pointer to the regex, incrementing the iterator after the regex was destroyed accesses a dangling pointer.

If the part of the regular expression that matched is just an assertion (^, $, \b, \B), the match stored in the iterator is a zero-length match, that is, match[0].first == match[0].second.

[edit] Example

#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <regex>
#include <string>
 
int main()
{
    const std::string s = "Quick brown fox.";
 
    std::regex words_regex("[^\\s]+");
    auto words_begin = std::sregex_iterator(s.begin(), s.end(), words_regex);
    auto words_end = std::sregex_iterator();
 
    std::cout << "Found " << std::distance(words_begin, words_end) << " words:\n";
 
    for (std::sregex_iterator i = words_begin; i != words_end; ++i)
    {
        std::smatch match = *i;
        std::string match_str = match.str();
        std::cout << match_str << '\n';
    }
}

Found 3 words:
Quick
brown
fox.

[edit] Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

1. ↑ iterator_category was unchanged by the resolution, because changing it to std::input_iterator_tag might break too much existing code.

[edit] See also