std::string::back()

Question

Why isn't there a std::basic_string<...>::back() member function?

The functionality is obviously there, I mean, one can write

• myString[myString.size()-1]

• *myString.rbegin()

Am I assuming some wrong equivalence between the potential back() and the two methods above? You can say that my second version is concise enough, but then, why not provide a function which is trivial to implement which brings string one step closer to a container? Is there a caveat I am missing?

Thanks.

Answer 1

There is no particular reason that std::string shouldn't have had these functions and this assertion is supported by the fact that they have been added in the upcoming C++ standard.