Can I remove elements from std::list, when I'm iterating on it?

Question

Can I remove elements from std::list, when I'm iterating on it? For example so:

std::list<int> lst;
//....
for (std::list<int> itr = lst.begin(); itr != lst.end(); itr++)
{
    if (*itr > 10)
         lst.remove(*itr);
}

? And why?

Answer 1

The correct code is the following:

for (std::list<int>::iterator itr = lst.begin(); itr != lst.end(); /*nothing*/)
{
    if (*itr > 10)
        itr = lst.erase(itr);
    else
        ++itr;
}

When you delete an item from the list, you may invalidate the iterator (if it points to the item being deleted.) Therefore you need to delete using erase (which returns a valid iterator pointing to the next item).

Even better idea would be using std::remove_if:

bool greater_than_10(int x)
{
    return x > 10;
}

lst.remove_if(greater_than_10);

If your compiler supports lambdas, you can put it even shorter:

lst.remove_if([](int x){ return x > 10; });

(I didn't test this code, as my compiler is not so new; the lambda function is thankfully stolen from @John Dibling's answer.)

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Actually, erasing from list invalidates only the iterators pointing to the item being deleted. Beware however that other STL containers don't have this property.

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So, in short: generally speaking, you should not delete the items from the list while iterating through it, because the deletion may invalidate the iterator (and the program will possibly crash). If you are however completely sure that the items which you delete are not the values referenced by any of the iterators which you use at the moment of deletion, you may delete.

Beware that for the other STL containers (e.g. vectors) the constraint is even more strict: deleting from the container invalidates not only iterators pointing to the deleted item, but possibly other iterators, too! So deleting from that containers while iterating through them is even more problematic.

Answer 2

No. The example code invalidates itr, causing undefined behavior. But this would work:

for (std::list<int>::iterator itr = lst.begin(); itr != lst.end(); )
{
    if (*itr > 10)
        itr = lst.erase(itr);
    else
        ++itr;
}